[Infowarrior] - The Real ID rebellion

Mon Apr 17 07:59:58 EDT 2006

The Real ID rebellion

By Declan McCullagh
http://news.com.com/The+Real+ID+rebellion/2010-1028_3-6061578.html

Story last modified Mon Apr 17 04:00:21 PDT 2006

In 1775, New Hampshire was the first colony to declare its independence from
oppressive laws and taxes levied by the British crown.

Now it may become the first state to declare its independence from an
oppressive digital ID law concocted in Washington, D.C.

New Hampshire's House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a
remarkable bill, HB 1582, that would prohibit the state from participating
in the national ID card system that will be created in 2008. A state Senate
vote is expected as early as next week.

The federal law in question is the Real ID Act (here's our FAQ on the topic)
that was glued on to a military spending and tsunami relief bill last year.
Because few politicians are courageous enough to be seen as opposing tsunami
aid, the measure sailed through the U.S. Senate by a 100-0 vote and
navigated its way through the House 368 votes to 58.

Unless states issue new, electronically readable ID cards that adhere to
federal standards, the law says, Americans will need a passport to do
everyday things like travel on an airplane, open a bank account, sign up for
Social Security or enter a federal building.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is currently devising regulations
for these federalized ID cards. One possibility is that the "electronically
readable" requirement will be satisfied by embedding a radio frequency
identification (RFID) chip. (They'll already be appearing in U.S. passports
starting in October.)

That prospect alarmed New Hampshire state Rep. Neal Kurk so much that he
gave an impassioned floor speech during the March 8 debate saying the
Granite State must not participate in the Real ID system.

"There are times, Mr. Speaker, when we must look beyond the mundane and the
pragmatic and take a stand based on our values," Kurk said. "I believe this
is one of those times...I don't believe the people of New Hampshire elected
us to help the federal government create a national ID card."

Kurk invoked the memory of Patrick Henry's revolutionary speech, "Give me
liberty or give me death," and New Hampshire's motto, "Live Free or Die."
While New Hampshire may be the first, it's not alone.

"The war on our civil liberties is actually begun," Kurk said. "There's a
price to be paid for independence. But I ask you, what price-- liberty?"

Kurk's impassioned plea prevailed. Even though a legislative committee had
opposed the measure, the House overruled the committee's recommendations by
a margin of 217 to 84.

A Real ID rebellion?
While New Hampshire may be the first, it's not alone. Other state
politicians are seething over how the federales are strong-arming them on
national IDs.

The National Governors Association, hardly a bunch of libertarians, has
called the Real ID Act "unworkable and counterproductive." The National
Conference of State Legislatures wrote to Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff in October, asking him to defer to states' expertise.

No doubt much of the political outcry is over money and would evaporate if
the Feds wrote checks to cover the cost of upgrading state computer systems.
(The governors' press release baldly admits they're "asking Congress to fund
the changes required" by the Real ID Act. One taxpayer watchdog group puts
the cost at $90 per Real ID card.)

That would be a shame. Privacy and autonomy are even better reasons to be
skeptical of this scheme.

There are no rules governing what data that private companies (hotels,
retailers, employers) will be able to extract from the Real ID when it's
swiped or placed next to an RFID reader. Will information like a home
address and Social Security number be disclosed? Will a federal database be
alerted whenever the card is swiped or read? And can an RFID'ed license be
read from 20 or 30 feet away?

Unanswered questions like those are why it's important that state
legislators stand up to bullying by Washington. "If New Hampshire passes
this bill, we'll be the first domino," Kurk, the state legislator, told me
Friday. "We're told there will be other states that follow on."

A New Hampshire Senate committee is mulling over the bill (and being lobbied
by the motor vehicle agency, because the Real ID Act included a $3 million
grant) with a floor vote expected after April 23. A rally is planned for
noon on April 22 at the Concord state capitol by an anti-RFID group, and a
Web site has sprung up to lobby senators.

"Having a national ID would promote a surveillance society that we should
all dread," Jim Harper, the director of information policy studies at the
free-market Cato Institute, told the state Senate committee last week.

The sad thing is that the U.S. Constitution was written to prohibit the
federal government from taking such drastic steps. The long-forgotten Tenth
Amendment says that powers not explicitly delegated to the Feds "are
reserved to the states" or to the people.

For now, though, the Real ID rebellion will continue. Patrick Henry's famous
resolution in the Virginia legislature condemned "burdensome taxation" in
the form of the hated Stamp Act. When more people learn about the Real ID
Act, it might just spark a similar revolt today.