West Virginia legislature should pass the pending anti-REAL ID bill! Feds Increase Pressure on States

Instead of a Special Legislative Session to try and force special lawsuit protections for certain companies, the West Virginia government needs to pass the pending bi-partisan legislation against REAL ID, discussed in previous articles, that would secure that "Mountaineers are Always Free". This is necessary to uphold both the Constitution of West Virginia and of the U.S., to secure both state control of law enforcement (from federalization) and privacy and security rights for all West Virginians, already over-regulated.

Senate Bill No. 685

(By Senators Foster, Barnes, Edgell, Kessler, Prezioso, Unger, Yoder, McKenzie, Boley, White, Sprouse, Minard and Hunter)

____________

[Introduced February 19, 2007; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]

____________

A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new article, designated §17B-7-1, relating to providing that West Virginia will not participate in the REAL ID Act of 2005 enacted by the United States Congress in Public Law 109-13.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new article, designated §17B-7-1, to read as follows:

ARTICLE 7. DIVISION NOT TO PERFORM CERTAIN ACTS.

§17B-7-1. Legislative finding; prohibiting implementation of "REAL ID Act."

---------------

This blogger writes the following, which should dispel the manufactured fear and saber-rattling coming from anti-consitutional threats the Federal government (per the 10th ammendment) does not have!

Schneier on Security

A blog covering security and security technology.

August 20, 2007

U.S. Government Threatens Retaliation Against States who Reject REAL ID

REAL ID is the U.S. government plan to impose uniform regulations on state driver's licenses. It's a national ID card, in all but cosmetic form. (Here is my essay on the security costs and benefits. These two sites are also good resources.)

Most states hate it: 17 have passed legislation rejecting REAL ID, and many others have such legislation somewhere in process. Now it looks like the federal government is upping the ante, and threatening retaliation against those states that don't implement REAL ID:

The cards would be mandatory for all "federal purposes," which include boarding an airplane or walking into a federal building, nuclear facility or national park, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the National Conference of State Legislatures last week. Citizens in states that don't comply with the new rules will have to use passports for federal purposes.

This sounds tough, but it's a lot of bluster. The states that have passed anti-REAL-ID legislation lean both Republican and Democrat. The federal government just can't say that citizens of -- for example -- Georgia (which passed a bill in May authorizing the Governor to delay implementation of REAL ID) can't walk into a federal courthouse without a passport. Or can't board an airplane without a passport -- imagine the lobbying by Delta Airlines here. They just can't.