STATES TO HOMELAND SECURITY ON REAL ID: NO THANKS
PART 1 of 2



By Steven Yates
May 11, 2008
NewsWithViews.com

Today—May 11, 2008—is not just Mother’s Day but REAL ID D-Day, so to speak: the day citizens of states not granted extensions to comply with the REAL ID Act of 2005 would find themselves unable to board planes, enter federal buildings, etc.

By the end of last year, seven states had passed laws prohibiting implementation of REAL ID in their state: Maine, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Washington, New Hampshire, and Georgia. That number became eight on April 9 of this year when Idaho joined up. Ten states had laws that were passed in one house but not the other. Eight more states had introduced such laws. Twelve had passed nonbinding resolutions denouncing REAL ID. That’s a 38-state rebellion!

With no evidence that an increasingly dictatorial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would back down, one by one, most of the states blinked and requested extensions. All but four: Montana, New Hampshire, Maine, and my adopted home state of South Carolina. According to DHS rules handed down in January, states had until March 31 to request an extension. If they did not, the above consequences for their citizens would kick in.

With the clock ticking, on March 31, 2008, South Carolina lived up to its reputation as a sometimes-defiant state with leaders capable of thinking independently and stand up for states’ rights (integral to the original meaning of federalism).

That day, Governor Mark Sanford declined to seek an extension from the Department of Homeland Security in order to comply with the REAL ID Act, which as some have noted did not get through Congress on its own merits but rode piggyback on an appropriations bill that Congress considered must-pass. That bill was signed into law by President Bush on May 11, 2005. For quite a while, little was said about REAL ID. Those of us who tried to draw attention to the subject often found ourselves derided as “conspiracy nuts.â€