Show me your papers, please? For REAL?

A three-year-old piece of Congressional legislation has been receiving more coverage and criticism lately, and it's time you were made aware of what's going on.

In 2005, "the Real ID Act was subsequently attached by the House Republican leadership as a rider to H.R. 1268, a bill dealing with emergency appropriations for the Iraq War and with the Tsunami relief funding. H.R. 1268 was widely regarded as a 'must-pass' legislation.... The Senate never discussed or voted on the Real ID Act specifically and no Senate committee hearings were conducted on the Real ID Act prior to its passage." (Wikipedia)

Does this "never discussed" bit remind you of the original Patriot Act? Stay with me.

Basically, the REAL ID Act mandates new rules for identification purposes, providing national standards for driver's licenses and linking state databases in an attempt to increase efficiency and combat terrorism and illegal immigration. Unless things change, by the end of 2014 you will be required to show your REAL ID to board a plane or enter a federal building or nuclear plant. Critics maintain that REAL ID is a dangerous invasion of privacy that brings us one giant leap closer to Big Brother.

Many fear that the effort to streamline identification will actually make identify theft easier. As expressed by an anonymous smug commenter on the Internet: "Oh and how will this protect against Identity theft? Storing everything they need to know in one centralized location on a server probably running on windows. It is one stop shopping for hackers!"

But most fear the potential for worse. While the REAL ID Act spells out few menacing details, it places no limits on what can be done in the future. It transfers the duties of identification to the Department of Homeland Security, an executive branch not accountable to the public in the way the Congress or local governments are (Remember, any power not given to the federal gov't belongs to the states. Not that we've been following that, but if we don't follow or amend it, why have a Constitution at all?). There is also controversy over the bill's checks and balances, as an old version "would have prohibited any judicial review" of a certain part of the bill, and even the final "limited restrictions on judicial review remain controversial." (Wikipedia)

Rumors already circulate that the REAL ID could require your fingerprint, or maybe even an RFID chip that can be tracked. More realistically, the national standard ID could be made to contain more and more types of personal information, and required for more and more places and activities, all in the name of "your own safety." Remember that iconic Nazi (or was it Communist?) image of "Show me your papers." Christians are reminded of the infamous "mark of the beast" that will be required to buy or sell, and wonder just how much closer this ID will bring us.

Is this really such a big deal, or is it nothing more than an upgraded driver's license - which is already required for many things? I'm not entirely sure, but I'm glad that many are fighting against it. The financial requirements and intrusions of privacy have made unlikely allies of governors, state legislatures, gun owners, and the ACLU. Originally, states were supposed to have complied by last month (May 2008), but they've received extensions (mostly for funding excuses) through 2009 - and we have five more years before we'll start to need the new cards.

I don't fly much, and I can avoid federal buildings (that includes the Arch) for awhile. I may avoid upgrading to a REAL ID as long as possible, especially if requirements seem to start slipping down the slope of the fears of the paranoid. (Because once people start losing their cards, or have them stolen, or a state's database is hacked, it'll be safer to implant the info in humans... but, hey, that's science fiction stuff!) But maybe I've got nothing to worry about. Maybe a streamlining of databases will be a good thing. Maybe the government will never want to track everything I do and buy just in case I might turn out to be a terrorist. Maybe I should stop humoring the civil libertarians who scream everytime Congress passes hundreds of pages of things without reading them first.

But I just thought you deserved to know. Unless, of course, ignorance is strength...