Real ID was a real mistake and Congress should scrap it at last

&gt; A national database linking all driver’s licenses would effectively impose something alien to our system of civil liberties: a national ID card.<p>This whole premise is a bit bizarre. We <i>have</i> national databases. We have the IRS’s tax database, social security, and Medicare. We have the selective service database. We have whatever database CBP uses to track anyone who has ever been known to cross a border.<p>We also have the databases operated by Experian and its competitors, which are worse, because they give out data to basically anyone and are accountable to no one. And they violate people’s’ civil liberties in egregious ways that the government would have trouble getting away with.<p>Frankly, an actual well-managed national ID database seems like an improvement in all respects. Of course, Real ID is no such thing.

&gt; “The day would not be far off,” wrote cybersecurity and surveillance expert Jim Harper, a former congressional committee counsel and senior fellow at the Cato Institute, “when a national ID is required for picking up prescriptions, purchasing guns and ammunition, paying by credit card, booking air travel, and reserving hotel stays, to name just a few types of transactions the federal government might regulate.” Again: That may be normal in some societies, but it cuts sharply against the grain in ours.<p>I’m not sure I fully understand the argument here. This is normal in US society. I cannot pickup prescriptions, travel, stay in a hotel, etc without a legitimate ID.<p>The argument appears to be that an ID issues by a state government is ok, but if it’s issued by the federal government that’s somehow, philosophically an overreach of power.<p>There are very good arguments against RealID. But the argument that it’s somehow fundamentally any different from what the US does today does not seem right at all.

I like the attempt to scare the reader by pointing out the barcode is unencrypted and anybody with an simple scanner could get it. But if they&#x27;re holding your ID I&#x27;m pretty sure they can already read all of that same info printed on the front of the card.

As someone who had to work countless, sleepless nights and weekends in a crazy push to get a REAL ID solution implemented it really annoys me that they extended the deadline.<p>I&#x27;ve long since left that company but there were multiple pushes like that where we were trying to get a state compliant before the previous deadlines.

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;yTO2u" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;yTO2u</a>

Real ID’s sole purpose is to punitively restrict travel for non citizens, particularly undocumented workers.<p>If you value liberty you should oppose it. It’s the best example of a specific step in the slide to a restrictive police state.<p>In no way does it improve security. I encourage everyone to speak out against it.

Date moved to May 2025.