REAL ID delayed again... but not long enough

In a small victory for federalism, the Department of Homeland Security has been forced to extend the deadline for state-level implementation of the REAL ID Act to 2011. The deadline had already been extended once due to opposition from several states, and this second extension has been attributed to more of the same. To date, 17 states have passed resolutions condemning the REAL ID Act and the national identification database that it seeks to create. We particularly like the resolution of the Utah Legislature, which says, “The use of identification-based security cannot be justified as part of a ‘layered’ security system if the costs of the identification ‘layer’ —in dollars, lost privacy, and lost liberty—are greater than the security identification provides... [T]he REAL ID Act is determined by the Utah State House of Representatives to be in opposition to the Jeffersonian principles of individual liberty, free markets and limited government.â€