National ID Law Takes Effect In 2014

State drivers’ licenses are slowly turning into national ID cards by a little known federal law called the REAL ID Act. The idea behind the law is to make it easier for law enforcement and security personnel to identify individuals through their driver’s licenses and state-issued identification cards, and the law has even led some states to ban smiling for license pictures, so as not to throw off computer facial recognition software. Privacy groups, as well as those opposed to a growing federal government, have expressed significant concern. The REAL ID Act created a set of standards for drivers’ licenses and ID cards that the states must meet by 2014, although currently only 19 states have met the criteria. The states were originally supposed to meet the criteria by 2008 but state governments successfully lobbied to get the deadline extended at least twice. Under the original plan, drivers’ licenses were to be used as ID for a wide variety of purposes, such as being allowed onto airplanes. But many states are not going along, even though a REAL ID will be required to board an airplane in 2016 – and to enter a federal building by October 2014. What the Real Act ID does The practical effect of the REAL ID Act is to create a set of standards that state-issued ID cards and drivers’ licenses must meet. The standards will be enforced by the Department of Homeland Security. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor so that we could be free! Under the Act a driver’s license or ID Card will have to meet 39 standards, including: Contain the individual’s full legal name. List the individual’s residential address and not a post office box. List the individual’s birth date. List the individual’s gender. Contain the individual’s signature. Contain a photograph that can be used for biometric identification.



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