Posted on 02/04/2007 9:17:11 AM PST by Brilliant
A revolt against a national driver's license, begun in Maine last month, is quickly spreading to other states.
The Maine Legislature on Jan. 26 overwhelmingly passed a resolution objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005. The federal law sets a national standard for driver's licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases.
Within a week of Maine's action, lawmakers in Georgia, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington state also balked at Real ID. They are expected soon to pass laws or adopt resolutions declining to participate in the federal identification network.
"It's the whole privacy thing," said Matt Sundeen, a transportation analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures. "A lot of legislators are concerned about privacy issues and the cost. It's an estimated $11 billion implementation cost."
The law's supporters say it is needed to prevent terrorists and illegal immigrants from getting fake identification cards.
States will have to comply by May 2008. If they do not, driver's licenses that fall short of Real ID's standards cannot be used to board an airplane or enter a federal building or open some bank accounts.
About a dozen states have active legislation against Real ID, including Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.
Missouri state Rep. James Guest, a Republican, formed a coalition of lawmakers from 34 states to file bills that oppose or protest Real ID.
Though most states oppose the law, some such as Indiana and Maryland are looking to comply with Real ID, Sundeen said.
The issue may be moot for states if Congress takes action.
The truth is that it makes more sense to have a federal law requiring national driver's licenses than it does to have a federal OSHA,
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why?
Because you drive your car all over the country. Your job is down the street. Let state government regulate that.
"When the libs embarked on this idea of abolishing federalism'
Pinning this on liberals won't wash. It was the republican dominated government and courts that gave the interpretation of the Commerce Clause that wiped away federalism. Don't consign the end of the republic to partisan sniping, please.
--are you speaking of the interpretation that occurred before the turn of the last century?
Yes, federalism died many years ago. The Tenth Amendment has been virtually abolished by the national income tax, Social Security, etc. The liberals cannot tolerate diversity in government, in any form.
oh I see where you're coming from. I disagree with it, but ok -
It seems to have germinated here---
During the American Great Depression, the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 imposed quotas on crops including wheat. The farmer Roscoe Filburn produced wheat in excess of the quota, but said the excess wheat was for his own personal consumption and therefore had no effect on interstate commerce. The Court ruled that a farmer's growing "his own wheat" is "commerce" because if he had not grown and consumed it, he would have had to buy it from someone. Hence, in the aggregate, if farmers were allowed to consume their own wheat it would affect the interstate market in wheat. This case marked what may be the high water mark of the commerce power. For sixty years—until the Lopez decision—the Supreme Court struck down no law as exceeding the power of Congress under the Commerce Clause.
But I was referring to---
Gonzales v. Raich (previously Ashcroft v. Raich), 545 U.S. 1 (2005), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled on June 6, 2005 that under the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution which allows the United States Congress "To regulate Commerce ... among the several States," Congress may ban the use of marijuana even where states approve its use for medicinal purposes.
A neatly bipartisan set, and might I add that Sen. John McCain is one of the foremost advocates for a National ID.
Think there's ID theft now?
Wait till somebody steals a laptop with 185,000,000 drivers ID's from the newly formed Federal DPT agency.
(DPT - Department of Permission to Travel)
Excuse me, but the states have the right, and the authority, to regulate anything within their state. The feds need to keep their noses out of the states and go back to doing what the constitution allows them to do, which is national defense etc. Keep the feds out of my hair and I will be much happier.
---thanks--good history. I am under the impression that the legislation and subsequent litigation over the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission was the predecessor of what you speak--
Texas would do it but right now our political leaders are debating smoking, suggestive cheerleader moves and anything they can think of to screw taxpayers out of our last dime.
Oh, I can just hear Hillary saying, "that's just the 'price for our freedom'".
Jacobus Lambertus Lentz, collaborated with the Nazis in 1941 to improve the existing ID cards and data processing systems.
August 17 (1941), Lentz devised a unique tamper-proof personal identification card that could not be forged. Translucent inks were employed to print key words that disappeared under a quartz lamp. The stamp franking was acetone-soluble. Photos of the individual were affixed front and back through a window transparently sealed and adhered with permanennt glue. A fingerprint of the person's right index finger was then impressed upon one of the photos so it always displayed through a small window. The individual's signature on watermarked paper completed the document, which included personal details.
Having created an ID Card, Lentz then anticipated the occupying Nazis demands for censuses and lists of Jews and non-Jewish slave labourers (categorised by skills and education), which were used for the mass arrests and deportations, through his IBM Hollerith punched card analyses.
IBM and the Holocaust. A must read.
Let's just be crystal clear, though, that the REAL ID Act does not make the Republic any safer. Quite to the contrary, it increases the vulnerability of the U.S. and of ordinary citizens.
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