Here’s an update to Cory’s earlier post about the Real ID Act vote — snip from News.com item by Declan McCullagh:
The U.S. Senate took a preliminary step on Wednesday toward reining in the controversial Real ID Act, which is scheduled to become America’s first federal identification card in a few years.
During Wednesday’s floor debate over a massive immigration bill, Real ID foes managed to preserve an amendment to prohibit the forthcoming identification card from being used for mandatory employment verification, signaling that the political winds have shifted from when the law was overwhelmingly enacted two years ago.
The anti-Real ID amendment is backed by two Montana Democrats, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, who say the digital ID cards represent an unreasonable government intrusion into Americans’ private lives. In April, Montana became one of the states that has voted to reject Real ID.
“This was a real victory for Montana and the American people,” Tester said, after the Senate vote to kill their amendment failed to muster a majority. The unsuccessful vote to table it was 45-52.
Link (Thanks, Rick Forno!)
Previously:
Reader comment: Jennifer Emick says,
Didn’t know if you guys had caught that the NH governor banned real ID yesterday? That brings it to five states actively protesting. Link.
Shaun Kelly says,
Even better than Jen says – the total number of states opting out is not five, but seven!
From Realnightmare.org:June 13, 2007 — Today Gov. Mark Sanford signed a bill that states simply, “The State shall not participate in the implementation of the federal REAL ID Act.” South Carolina becomes the sixth state to pass a statutory ban on Real ID implementation, following Montana, Washington, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Maine.
(and now New Hampshire!)
Sam Garfield says,
The newspapers aren’t doing their research. Many more states have banned Real ID by legislation, resolution, or at least unofficial stance. Utah, for example, has opposed the Real ID act through a resolution passed earlier this year. The language of the resolution is actually a really entertaining read (as far as resolutions go) and pretty much covers all the bases on Real ID-suckage. It really makes you proud to be an American.
The Wikipedia page sheds further light on the status of many states. When I made the count a few weeks ago, the number of states was in the twenties. They’re not necessarily opposed because of moral reasons or anything like that – it’s usually just a case of the Government asking states to implement a really (really) expensive program without giving them funding for it.