The Defense of REAL-ID-compliant Driver’s Licenses: How Federal Government Repressed the 2005 Maine DOT-Improvement Law

The federal government is also still reviewing how well states have done. The transportation safety administration is auditing compliance because it believes states did the best job, said Brian Zimmer, a former congressman and consultant on REAL-ID laws. He says that should allow for more time for the states to catch up with the federal standard.

While the deadline in airports is finally upon us, the system is still getting pushback. Just last week, officials in Maine asked for another delay in the federal deadline, because only about a quarter of the state’s licenses are compliant.

REAL ID–compliant driver’s licenses can also be used to show a person’s lawful status in the US, where a regular driver’s license functions as proof of identity.

The letter did not say what consequences would befall the states that have given driver’s licenses to people who weren’t legally allowed to be in the US.

It’s often assumed the 2005 REAL ID law was a result of the terror attacks of 2001 and the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation that the federal government “set standards” for state-issued ID’s. Brian Zimmer claims that Congress was worried about ID’s date prior to 1995.

She says that many states initially resisted REAL ID due to cost, privacy, and the burden on some people to provide additional documentation. The federal government repeatedly delayed the deadline as it negotiated compliance details with states.

“When I wrote my dissertation, I was thinking ‘It’s just a requirement — people fulfill their requirement and get their ID.’ But then it comes with ideology, view of the world, technology, your identity, how much information you share.”

Udi ofer, a former attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that most people don’t know what the REAL ID Act is about and think it’s just an annoyance in the Department of Motor Vehicles. “But when the law passed, there was an incredible ideological diversity in the voices of opposition.”

The law had two big goals: have states issue ID’s that are harder to counterfeit, and require states to do more to check the veracity of the information they put on those cards. The law was put in place so that it wouldn’t politically controversial to make a national ID card.

“‘What do the kids call it when you have to bring their actual state driver’s licenses to a concert where the cops are gonna check?'” And Sensenbrenner was told, ‘Well you bring your real I.D.’ That’s where the name came from.

“Because the Oklahoma City bombers bought their fertilizer [for the bomb] using a counterfeit ID made by a wife of one of them on an ironing board,” says Zimmer, who was a researcher for the House Judiciary Committee.

The 9/11 attackers were in the country legally and there was no need for fake ID’s. Congress’ actions were added to by 9/11.

“I wrote the REAL ID act,” Zimmer says, but he says credit for the name goes to his boss at the time, former House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.

“Sensenbrenner wanted something that everybody would get. You know, common language,” Zimmer recalls. Sensenbrenner wanted staffers fresh out of college for suggestions.

The deadline for getting a REAL ID is here, and they’re a mess. The Transportation Security Administration is going to enforce the new flying ID restrictions

The deadline for getting a REAL ID is here. On May 7th, after nearly two years of kicking the can down the road, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will finally require travelers to have REAL IDs — or other compliant forms of identification (more on that later) — to board domestic flights in the US. No one is prepared for it. At airports, the agency is bracing for problems, while the Department of Motor Vehicles offices are reporting long lines out the door.

“People will experience travel delays,” Patricia Mancha, a TSA spokesperson, told CBS News in April. The people have had years to plan for this, so the transportation safety administration will enforce the laws as they apply.

20 of them were actually years to prepare, and that is true. But the deadline has been pushed back so many times that a reasonable person could’ve assumed it’d happen again. The initial 2008 deadline was delayed because of concerns over privacy and the cost of implementation.

Source: The new flying ID restrictions are here, and they’re a mess

New Jersey is the lowest rate of real ID compliance in the country, and it is frustrating to see how many people are trying to get their REAL IDs

Elsewhere in the country, people have been scrambling to get REAL IDs before the deadline. New Jersey has the lowest rate of compliance in the country, with just 17 percent of IDs issued by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) being REAL IDs. People are driving and waiting to get IDs before the deadline. “Everyone I know is fighting to get one,” one Jersey resident told The New York Times. You can’t find any.