Resistance rises to US law that requires stricter ID standards

States from Maine to Montana are rebelling against a federal law meant to make driver's licenses a definitive form of identification, an issue that cuts across flash points of homeland security, civil liberties, and illegal immigration.

Legislators in 15 states are pushing bills and resolutions that urge noncompliance with the 2005 Real ID Act. The law, based on recommendations by the 9/11 commission, sets minimum standards for verifying the identity of license applicants, and stipulates what information must be stored on machine-readable cards.

The law is intended to make it harder for terrorists to operate on American soil and for illegal immigrants to get legitimate employment in the US.

But as the 2008 deadline for implementation nears, the Real ID law is raising a host of concerns: cost, hassle for millions of drivers, and fear that government or private industry will misuse the data network. Opponents as divergent as states' rights politicians, civil libertarians, and immigration advocates are rallying to undo it.

"When we call around the country, we get Democrats to join [against it], we get Republicans. In one state, they were fighting to see which party was going to file the [anti-Real ID] legislation," says James Guest (R), a state representative in Missouri. He is at the center of a loose coalition of lawmakers in 34 states who are filing measures opposing Real ID.

Maine's legislature fired the opening salvo last month in adopting a resolution of noncompliance – a position that, if carried out, could eventually impair Mainers' ability to easily board airplanes, open bank accounts, or enter federal buildings. The Montana House went further by actually prohibiting implementation.

Frustration over "a large unfunded mandate" is the first complaint of Massachusetts state Sen. Richard Moore (D), who has filed a noncompliance resolution similar to one in New Mexico.

Such lawmaker concerns stem from a September study by state government associations that put the price tag for implementing the Real ID law at $11 billion – much more than the $100 million Congress had estimated. So far, Congress has allocated $40 million to the project.

To arrive at that figure, the study assumed that everyone with a driver's license – all 245 million of them – must be recredentialed within five years of May 2008, the federal deadline for compliance. That would require each individual to visit a division of motor vehicles (DMV), paperwork in hand, and mandates the DMV to verify each identification document with the agency that issued it. There are about 16,000 issuers of birth certificates alone.

"States will feel the wrath of the driving public," says Senator Moore. "Our hope is [that], with the change in the majority in Congress, ... folks [will] take another look at it ... or come up with the money."

Opponents in the US Senate say they will press for changes to the law.

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