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Who Killed Real ID?
An unlikely coalition wins a post-9/11 victory for civil liberties
(Page 3 of 4)
"Congress has no authority over what we do with our driver's licenses," Brogdon says today. "It's a flagrant violation of the 10th Amendment. And it blows away the First Amendment rights of my constituents. I have constituents who believe that in the end times, we will have to bear a special mark that will be foisted upon us by the government."
Brogdon's party wasn't very supportive at first. Former Oklahoma Rep. Ernest Istook, a Republican who lost the race for governor in 2006 and then found a sinecure at the Heritage Foundation, attacked politicians who wanted to opt out of Real ID. "When you are out of step with the rest of the country," Istook said in January 2007, "it is not reasonable to think Congress is going to change the law just for you."
Brogdon sold statehouse members on opting out of Real ID by pushing a combination of fiscal concerns and privacy fears. "Congress passed this thing without any debate," he argues. "I just think that's despicable." Even as the state was passing an anti-illegal immigration bill, Brogdon's Real ID revolt sailed through.
From state to state, the same pattern emerged. In Idaho, Republican Rep. Phil Hart, based in the rural area around Coeur d'Alene, was already getting "incredibly negative" feedback from his constituents about the law. To build support for his opt-out bill, Hart invited Cato's Jim Harper to a public forum. Harper took his seat and listened to the speaker before him, state Homeland Security Director Bill Bishop. Harper was stunned.
"I'm there, dressed to the nines to give this speech based on material I've worked on for months," Harper says. "Here's this guy—a great Western guy, with a sheriff mustache—saying it all. Cost overruns. Civil liberties. The flawed national database. That was a point when I realized how pervasive the understanding of this issue was, and how oppositional it was."
The ACLU and Cato became the public face of Real ID opposition, but much of the grunt work was done by activists on the political fringes. Katherine Albrecht is a conservative long active in opposing radio frequency identification (RFID) chips—electronic tracking gizmos that can be implanted in virtually anything. When Albrecht heard about the Real ID Act, she hit the campaign trail, writing articles for websites and magazines like Endtime, giving anti-Real ID presentations to legislatures in states as far-flung as Alaska. "I got a lot of ‘wow' and ‘that can't be true' kind of reactions," she remembers. The John Birch Society contacted its members in every state, provided information for them to dog their legislators, and published anti-Real ID journalism in its New American magazine.
Not even James Sensenbrenner's Wisconsin stomping grounds were safe from Real ID rebels. Republicans controlled the state legislature, but state Rep. Jeff Wood (R-Chippewa Falls) was against Real ID from the start. "I thought it did nothing to prevent terrorism," Wood says. "The only thing you can ever predict is bad legislation, and this took the cake as far as that's concerned."
Wood found a liberal ally in state Rep. Louis Molepske (D-Stevens Point), whose initial worries about Real ID grew as he talked to federal officials. "I was on a conference call with the undersecretary of DHS," he remembers, "and I asked pointed questions he could not answer." Molepske was prodded by his left-leaning constituents to research Real ID and to pass a corrective bill. "I'm blessed to represent a district with a university, with a lot of really smart people who educated me," he says.
Wood and Molepske drafted legislation that took Wisconsin out of Real ID. Sensenbrenner, fuming, said he would travel district to district and campaign against any Republican who opposed the federal law. "I said ‘go ahead,'" says Wood. "I offered to pay for his gas." Wood and Molepske aren't feeling much heat before their September primaries; by the time Sensenbrenner made his threat, no one could mistake which way the wind was blowing.
The Governors' Rebellion
By the start of 2008, 18 states—Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington—had passed laws opting out of Real ID or demanding extensions past the May deadline. The Bush administration responded by buckling. On January 11 DHS pushed back the final deadline for compliance by five years, from 2012 to 2017. The central concept of a national database was scrapped for financial and technological reasons: It was just too much for the department to manage, even if a full-scale revolt hadn't been thwarting it at every step.
But Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, wasn't satisfied. On February 11 he sent (and made public) a letter to 12 fellow governors. The message: Hang tough. "Please do not accept the Faustian bargain of applying for the DHS extension," Schweitzer wrote. "If we stand together, either DHS will blink or Congress will have to act to avoid havoc at our nation's airports and federal courthouses."
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, didn't need the pep talk. He had opposed a national ID card for years, starting when he was a congressman in the mid-1990s. "Illegal immigration was used as the trojan horse back then," Sanford remembers. "The new ingredient is post-9/11 fears."
On May 31 Sanford sent DHS his own seven-page letter excoriating the program. Like Schweitzer, he made it public. "Does it make any sense to begin a de facto national ID system without debate?" Sanford wrote. "As a practical matter, this sensitive subject received far less debate than steroid use in baseball." He concluded by telling DHS to be "mindful not to fight yesterday's battle and to always remember that America's greatest homeland security rests in liberty."
DHS responded by pretending Sanford had said something else entirely. "Based on your assurances," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wrote, "it seems clear that South Carolina is well on the way to meeting requirements comparable to those required by the final Real ID regulation. I will therefore treat your letter as a basis for an extension and hereby grant it."
The Wine Commonsewer|10.6.08 @ 12:07PM|#
I am delighted with this but as a cynic I have to point out that
the state Driver License already functions as a national id card as
does your social security number (to a lesser extent).
Certainly it's nice to see Governor Janet stand up on her hind legs
and say NO, but it's a little late.
As an aside, Governor Janet is also pretty adamant about
instituting Pre-K at taxpayer expense.
By the time those kids are grown retina scans will be as common as
measles vaccinations.
|10.6.08 @ 12:18PM|#
It's a small victory, but dammit, we lovers of freedom and
skeptics of ther feds need some few small wins.
It's worth a toast.
|10.6.08 @ 12:57PM|#
Everytime I see anything about Real ID, I flash back to scenes
at train stations in the old WWII movies.
A weasel in black leathers and jackboot, hand outstretched,
penetrating dour stare, saying "Peperzzzzzzz?"
Mister DNA|10.6.08 @ 1:09PM|#
In addition to the financial incentives, the Federal gov't also failed to give REAL ID a cool name like, "The Super Freedom I Love America Fan Club Card".
|10.6.08 @ 1:13PM|#
I think if the Real ID card also replaced your ATM, credit, grocery store, gym, work ID, etc. it would have gone over better. Or maybe all that should be a chip under your arm so that you can't loose it.
I am Spartacus|10.6.08 @ 1:42PM|#
It is only a matter of time, bigger sticks, or juicier carrots
before some form of REAL ID passes.
If it only takes $150 billion in bribes to pass the bailout...
Naga Sadow|10.6.08 @ 2:20PM|#
I'm a bartender and I constantly check id's. Security here, however, has a cool little gadjet that runs your id. They don't even match the pictures up with the person in front of them.
|10.6.08 @ 2:22PM|#
The only ideology that defeated the Real ID act, if it's really defeated at all, was if the feds mandate it, they should pay for it. If the feds decided to pay for it, most states would drop their opposition.
|10.6.08 @ 3:32PM|#
TrickyVic | October 6, 2008, 2:22pm | #
The only ideology that defeated the Real ID act, if it's really defeated at all, was if the feds mandate it, they should pay for it. If the feds decided to pay for it, most states would drop their opposition.
Yup.
the innominate one|10.6.08 @ 5:04PM|#
good article, David.
bottom line: bipartisanship good, just this once?
|10.6.08 @ 6:57PM|#
"wtc7 was demolished by explosives."
Not unless someone invented silent explosives, sunshine.
-jcr
Ben1|10.6.08 @ 7:01PM|#
Your SSN has been your "real id" for years now. You can't bank
without it; you can't get a job above menial work without it; you
can't get credit without it; you can't get insurance without it...
this door was closed long ago.
Can you say "Here's my ID" to the nice man in the jackboots? Of
course you can. You've been doing so for years.
And if you don't, you're going to jail. Right now. And if you elect
to remain silent, they'll elect to "simulate drowning" until you
say what they want. Or they'll taser you. Or they'll plant drugs on
you, or your kids.
This is not the government the constitution mandates. It is
exercising power far beyond any authority ever granted it.
Happy discussion of real id doesn't change a thing; you're a fully
enslaved subject of the royal 545 and there isn't a darned thing
you can do about it.
|10.6.08 @ 7:10PM|#
Your SSN has been your "real id" for years now. You can't
bank without it; you can't get a job above menial work without it;
you can't get credit without it; you can't get insurance without
it... this door was closed long ago.
Yep, that is true. People do not exist without the SSN. As a matter
of fact, the SSN would not be useful at all (except for the
government) if there were no legal tender laws. It has been the
Marxian 5th point (central banking) that placed the final nail on
your freedom's coffin.
|10.6.08 @ 7:52PM|#
Naga Sadow's point seems to be ignored. I live in MA, I have a
barcode on my license, it is real ID ...lots of other states have
this as well....Real ID is here!
"no slave is so dominated as the slave who thinks he is free."
|10.6.08 @ 10:38PM|#
Anyone surprised that stealing a trillion dollars from the
middle class didn't save the economy?
Now they have "unreviewable authority", think they aren't going to
use it to steal more from us?
|10.6.08 @ 11:20PM|#
It seems a better ID system will not happen until another crisis
occurs.
So far the fight against terrorism, illegal immigration, identity
theft, and voter fraud have been unable to push this nation to
fully adopt the Real ID.
What will tip the nation into accepting it?
What if one day a nominee for President was thought to actually not
be naturally born, and could not offer proof that he was?
It seems plausible that a majority of people would not want that to
happen and support a better ID.
|10.7.08 @ 1:03AM|#
Is Real ID really dead? Really? From where I sit, it just looks
like a pause in the action.
Was the bailout dead when the House (constitutionally required to
originate all money bills) defeated it? Hardly.
Only some seismic shifts in the direction of liberty have the
potential of saving us from dropping all the way to the bottom of
the slippery slope. The only message powerful enough to arrest the
slide, not to mention reverse it, is to kick out all the
incumbents, especially or at least those who voted yes on the
bailout. An even more important message would be sent if their
replacements were not their opponents in the other big party, but
rather third-party or independent candidates, everywhere credible
alternative candidates are running.
|10.7.08 @ 2:56AM|#
This article is weird, I assume David is against real ID, but It
immediately poisons the argument of those against real ID by saying
right of the bat, "You know how is against Real ID, CRAZY 9/11
TRUTHERS"
It would be like a pro-McCain writer staring an article of by
saying "You know who else will vote for McCain, WHITE
SUPREMISISTS"
|10.7.08 @ 1:10PM|#
"""I'm a bartender and I constantly check id's. Security here,
however, has a cool little gadjet that runs your id. They don't
even match the pictures up with the person in front of
them.""""
How do they match the person to the ID if they don't look at the
photo?
Sheila Dean|10.7.08 @ 2:57PM|#
I kind of feel like the article is a premature memorial to an act that isn't dead yet. This act is still rooted at the federal level. Unless we repeal it the more dangerous and damaging ciphers will start to crop up. In Texas there are initiatives for drivers license checkpoints where ID's will be randomly required from anyone who is driving. Does this sound like East Berlin, Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia to you? This fight is far from over. The fate of our foe has yet to feel much more than some snap back over states rights {THANK GOD!}. Please use your second win and your gloating to take on the REAL man in this fight -FEMA/DHS & your CEO in Chief.
|10.8.08 @ 7:00AM|#
I think that it actually makes a lot of sense to have a national ID card. It shouldn't be in the form of a driver's license though.
Myrisa|10.8.08 @ 9:38PM|#
Unfortunately, the only place where the DHS Real-ID program is being implemented is in Puerto Rico, a US territory in which, ironically, the governor (D), who has been indicted with 24 counts of federal crimes and claims persecution for political reasons, hailed the application of the Real-ID scheme at the local government's expense.
Mark Lerner|10.9.08 @ 5:18PM|#
My name is Mark Lerner. I am the Co-Founder of the Stop Real ID
Act Coalition which is comprised of many people including
lawmakers. We are non partisan. We take exception to the article
because it provides too many inaccurate statements and further does
not discuss the fact that Real ID is international not just
national. We would ask that the public and lawmakers read our
latest update on our home page. It not only provides information
that the "article" does not address but facts that the public will
be outraged about. We supply the substantiating documents to
support each fact we present. The "fox" is coming back in sheep's
clothing. We are going state to state and working with citizens.
groups and lawmakers in opposition to Real ID and SB 717. Some of
the lawmakers quoted in the article are part of our Coalition. I
was asked by our members to supply this response. We ask that each
person visit our web-site at www.stoprealidcoalition.com for facts
versus an overview that lacks a great deal of information and would
lead readers to make wrong assumptions. Thank you
Mark Lerner
co-founder Stop Real ID Act Coalition
Leave a Comment
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