Chertoff warns states to comply with ID rules What part of the Tenth
Amendment does Chertoff not understand?
Amendment X - Powers of the States and People.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to
the people.
Actung! Ve must see your papers!
By DEVLIN BARRETT, The Associated Press
Published: Friday, March 21, 2008 | Updated: 1:29 pm
Filip Horv at/AP
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff arrives for a news conference
Thursday in Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia. Chertoff warns states to comply with
Real ID rules. The holdouts include South Carolina, Maine and Montana.
WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff rebuked lawmakers
today for seeking to stall new rules on driver's licenses that could cause big
headaches for air travelers starting in May.
Federal authorities are currently at a standoff with a handful of states over
a law called Real ID, which would require new security measures for
state-issued driver's licenses.
South Carolina, Maine, and Montana are the only states that have not sought
extensions to comply, or already started toward compliance with Real ID, which
was passed after the 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington.
A fourth state, New Hampshire, has asked to be exempted, but homeland security
officials do not view that letter as a legally acceptable request, so the
Granite State has not received an extension.
Chertoff has warned that if holdout states do not send a letter by the end of
March seeking an extension, come May, residents of such states will no longer
be able to use their driver's licenses as valid ID to board airplanes or enter
federal buildings.
Such travelers would instead have to present a passport or be subjected to
secondary screening.
Five senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Jon Tester and Max
Baucus of Montana, and John Sununu of New Hampshire appealed to Chertoff last
week to exempt all 50 states from the looming deadline.
Chertoff responded today that it was not he, but Congress who picked the date
when the law went into effect in 2005.
"You may disagree with the foregoing law, but I cannot ignore it," Chertoff
said in the letter.
The law, he said, is necessary for national security according to
recommendations from the commission that studied the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
"Secure identification is a cornerstone of protecting our communities," he said.
The nation's top homeland security official also offered a blunt warning to
those critics who claim the government is bluffing when it says it will impose
harsher security reviews in states that do not seek an extension from the Real
ID law.
"Showing up at the airport with only a driver's license from such a state will
be no better than showing up without identification," he wrote. "No doubt this
will impel many to choose the inconvenience of traveling with a passport."
Chertoff has offered a plan to gradually implement Real ID requirements over a
period of ten years, so that eventually all driver's licenses would have
several layers of security features to prevent forgery. They would also be
issued only after a number of identity checks, including immigration status and
verification of birth certificates.
Critics of the plan say it is too expensive, an invasion of privacy, and won't
actually make the country safer.
The most outspoken, Montana Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, has said the
federal government can "go to hell." He argues that Real ID won't work and the
Bush administration won't be around long enough to prove it.
The holdouts include South Carolina, Maine and Montana.
Tell every governor to get on board with defending the Constitution
TELL Governors: "DON'T BLINK!"
SC: Governor Mark Sanford
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12267
Columbia, SC 29211
Fax: 803-734-5167
Phone: 803-734-2100.
E-mail: http://www.scgovernor.com/contact/email/default.htm
http://www.jbs.org/node/4553
Montana: Gov. Brian Schweitzer
http://governor.mt.gov/
Governor Brian D. Schweitzer
Office of the Governor
Montana State Capitol Bldg.
P.O. Box 200801
Helena MT 59620-0801
(406) 444-3111, FAX (406) 444-5529
http://www.jbs.org/node/7004
Maine: Governor John Elias Baldacci
http://maine.gov/governor/baldacci/index.shtml
Mailing Address
Office of the Governor
#1 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0001
Phone
207-287-3531
207-287-6548 (TTY)
Fax
207-287-1034
http://www.jbs.org/node/2493
Contact your legislators:
http://capwiz.com/jbs/home/
http://www.jbs.org/node/7152#SlideFrame_1
http://www.jbs.org/node/3542
http://www.jbs.org/node/6985
Call YOUR Congressman
at 866 340-9281
1-800-833-6354
1-877-762-8762
1-866-808-0065
1-888-355-3588
1-866-220-0044
NOW!
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