by Steve Meyer, American Policy Center, ©2022
(Apr. 7, 2022) — The Constitutional Alliance has written over 100 articles about the Real ID Act 2005 since the law was enacted 17 years ago. The Constitutional Alliance provided States/Commonwealths with legislation that prevented the agency or department that oversees the issuance of drivers’ licenses or valid issued identification cards for those that do not drive, from complying with the Real ID Act 2005. Further, the Constitutional Alliance testified in many States/Commonwealths in opposition to the Real ID Act 2005. Finally, the Constitutional Alliance was invited to hearings in Congress that related to the Real ID Act 2005 and met with members of Congress, their staff and committee counsel about the Real ID Act 2005. This article is only going to address two aspects of the Real ID Act 2005: The “Official Purpose” and the collection of your biometrics.
We ask for your patience as we address the “Official Purpose.” It can be very misleading not to provide enough background information that allows the public to understand the threat the “Official Purpose” of the Real ID Act 2005 is to all freedom loving citizens.
The Real ID Act has many tentacles that are each very egregious. The law, Public Law 109-13, The Real ID Act 2005 is not a terribly long law, but it does have hundreds of pages that were published as part of the Rulemaking process. Most members of Congress and state legislators have never read the law, or the Rules issued by the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) with the Department of Transportation consulting.
Those that call for the complete repeal of the Real ID Act have no idea of what the consequences would be of what they are calling for. Part of the Real ID Act, Title I, has nothing to do with the issuance of drivers’ licenses but rather deals with immigration. There are some good aspects of Title I of the Real ID Act 2005 that can help to secure our borders. Also, a complete repeal of the Real ID Act 2005 would undo the repeal of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act of 2004, section 7212. Section 7212 gives the federal government control over state issued drivers’ licenses. Bottom line, if a repeal is done, the repeal must be done surgically. The repeal must only address Title II of the Real ID Act 2005 and leave in place the repeal of Section 7212 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act of 2004. https://irp.fas.org/crs/RL32722.pdf
It is important for citizens to know the Real ID Act 2005 was only passed by Congress because it was attached to two “must pass” pieces of legislation. 1) A military spending bill 2) Tsunami relief legislation. The Real ID Act passed overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives and not one member of the United States Senate voted against the Real ID Act 2005. Finally, the Real ID Act was authored by the same congressman who authored the USA PATRIOT ACT, Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin. Participation in the Real ID Act 2005 by States and Commonwealths is voluntary.
Within the Real ID Act are the definitions. The following definition is provided for “OFFICIAL PURPOSE”:
“OFFICIAL PURPOSE- The term `official purpose’ includes but is not limited to accessing Federal facilities, boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, entering nuclear power plants, and any other purposes that the Secretary shall determine (our emphasis). https://911familiesforamerica.org/real-id-act/
In an opinion column written by the former Secretary of the DHS, after the publication of the final rule, said, “embracing REAL ID” would mean it would be used to “cash a check, hire a baby sitter, board a plane or engage in countless other activities.” https://epic.org/wp-content/uploads/privacy/id_cards/epic_realid_0508.pdf page 23
Read the rest here.
Steve Meyer is an accomplished information management professional. He’s owned successful businesses and worked for global multi-national conglomerates. When it comes to security, privacy issues, data-mining and forensics, Steve is a nationally recognized expert who’s spoken before world thought leaders in Washington D.C. during an ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) event sponsored by the high tech firms of the day.
I just renewed my driver’s license in January and refused the “real ID” version because I don’t want them being able to track me that well