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REAL ID In Its Death Throes, Says ACLU
Dr. Eggman points us to Ars Technica for an article on the ACLU's view of the latest loosening and deadline extensions for REAL ID act compliance by the Department of Homeland Security. The rights organization believes that REAL ID is doomed. "The ACLU, which opposes the plan on civil liberties grounds, says that the many changes made since the Act was passed [in 2005] nearly 'negate the original intent of the program.' 'DHS is essentially whittling Real ID down to nothing... all in the name of denying Real ID is a failure,' said ACLU senior legislative counsel Tim Sparapani. 'Real ID is in its death throes, and any signs of life are just last gasps.'"
The ACLU sometimes fights the good fight. But I think the harm they do to liberties, especially the liberty to run a public school and for the community to teach its children as they see fit, far outweighs the good.
What it'll become is a federal requirement for the next incarnation of state DLs having to match a federal data standard.
How is it a good this for those who love freedom? It's only good for those who want to control the population.
What the really big up roar with the current RealID is that many states have gone their own way with having bar codes or digital information on their DLs, but only that state's systems can read the info off the card, and no one is willing to spend additional money just to conform to a federal standard.
Point to one place in the Constitution of the USA where it gives the federal governemnt this sort of power? Hint, it doesn't therefore the federal government has no such authority, and the 10th Amendment reserves all powers not specifically granted to the federal government to the state or th4e people.
Let's be honest there is no additional privacy problems with RealID. If you are in a position to be stopped and asked for State or Federal ID by a state or federal government official for government services,
Travel IS NOT a governmental, at least not federal government, service. Most air travel is between individuals or entities and other entities. And many of those entities are businesses.
If the government is hunting for you, they know your name and last known address. RealID was supposed to make it trivial to swipe a DL through a reader so all that DL info could be auto populated rather than manually entered. This is supposed to be a the huge privacy concern needing ACLU attention?
Yes it is, other than a dictatorship or authoritarian regime why does the government need to track law abiding people?
FaclonShould there be a Law?