REAL ID Is a Direct Attack on State Sovereignty

***NEWS RELEASE***

For Immediate Release

February 6, 2017

MEDIA CONTACT:Hamilton Strategies, 610.584.1096, ext. 104, or Media@HamiltonStrategies.com

REAL ID Is a Direct Attack on State Sovereignty

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom Applauds Pennsylvania Lawmakers Working to Protect Their People from Unconstitutional National ID; Calls on Others to Do the Same

ST. PAUL, Minn.—Last week, 116 lawmakers in Pennsylvania penned a letter to President Donald Trump, asking him to protect their residents by reexamining REAL ID, a 2005 act that will affect Americans’ drivers licenses, is a harmful government intrusion and violates their privacy.

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF, www.cchfreedom.org), a national health freedom and patient advocacy organization, has staunchly opposed the push to implement a national ID card and has been educating Americans and lawmakers about the dangers of this initiative, including the half-truths proponents are telling to advance their agenda.

According to ABC News in Pennsylvania, the letter from the Keystone State lawmakers asks President Trump to resolve the constitutional issues the REAL ID Act has raised and to relieve states of the massive cost associated with the law.

“Pennsylvania legislators understand state and individual rights under the 10th Amendment,” said CCHF president and co-founder Twila Brase. “As the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1997 Printz v. United States case, the federal government doesn’t get a say when it comes to state issues. The Court said the federal government may not issue directives requiring the states to address particular problems, not command a state to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program. Thus, the Court recognizes states’ rights under the 10th Amendment.

“That’s why five REAL ID enforcement deadlines have come and gone since 2008,” Brase continued. “The states that refuse to conform to REAL ID are not only well aware of the dangers of the law, but also of the serious violation REAL ID is of states’ rights and the 10th Amendment. REAL ID is a direct attack on state sovereignty. It is not innocuous, it is not just another type of state driver’s license, and even Homeland Security admits in official documents that it is not required to fly, despite what the media reports. REAL ID is a federally controlled ID card, and federal officials can dictate an expanding list of what ‘official purposes’ it must be used for if states acquiesce—and that’s the truth lawmakers and the American public must be told.”

ABC in Pennsylvania further reported: “The lawmakers say Real ID imposes a significant unfunded mandate and usurps the states’ power to institute their own driver license regulations. The legislators add that because the law requires a registry with personal data, it increases the potential for fraud and identity theft.”

Brase added that besides the letter from Pennsylvania, another letter is in the works in South Carolina, and U.S. Senators from Montana have a bill to repeal REAL ID. Five states have not conformed to REAL ID—Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana and Washington—and many non-conforming states have been granted an extension to the conformance deadline, including Pennsylvania. Read more here from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In CCHF’s home state of Minnesota, freedom from REAL ID, however, is in jeopardy, as lawmakers continue to push bills to conform to REAL ID. CCHF has been instrumental in the fight to keep the state’s 2009 bipartisan, near-unanimous REAL ID prohibition intact.

Demonstrating the law’s unconstitutionality, there are no penalties or enforcement procedures to secure REAL ID compliance. But, as with earlier deadlines, in 2015, DHS issued a warning stating that non-compliant drivers’ licenses would no longer be accepted for domestic air travel starting in January 2016. The intent was to scare the public, according to CCHF, but when state legislators didn’t jump into conforming activities, DHS extended the deadline to Jan. 22, 2018, with a stated prohibition on flying in 2020.

CCHF has a section of its website dedicated to REAL ID, countering the misconceptions and misstatements about the national ID law, which CCHF fears could also turn into a National Patient ID, leading to a “no card, no care” requirement. Also online are CCHF’s “17 Facts About REAL ID,” “13 Acceptable Travel Documents” and a new video about the REAL ID battle in Minnesota.

CCHF has launched The Wedge of Health Freedom (www.JointheWedge.com) to restore simplicity, affordability, and confidentiality to health care. Thus far, nearly 200 Wedge practices, where patients can find affordable, patient-centered care, are located in 44 states and can be found online.

CCHF is a national patient-centered health freedom organization existing to protect health care choices, individualized patient care, and medical and genetic privacy rights. For more information about CCHF, visit its web site at www.cchfreedom.org, its Facebook page or its Twitter feed @CCHFreedom. For more about The Wedge of Health Freedom, visit www.JointheWedge.com, The Wedge Facebook page or follow The Wedge on Twitter @wedgeoffreedom.

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For more information or to interview Twila Brase of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, contact Beth Harrison at 610-584-1096 x104, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com or Deborah Hamilton at 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096 x102.