REAL ID Repeal — Seven Reasons to Act

Seven Reasons to Act

1.   Federal Takeover of States

REAL ID is a National ID system that ends state and personal sovereignty. Most people think it’s just another card, but it’s a federal system.

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, during the 2005 Senate floor debate, stated:

“This really is a National Identification card for the United States of America for the first time in our history. We’ve never done this before, and we shouldn’t be doing it without a full debate… I’m very, very reluctant for this country to have a National ID card . . .”

U.S. Senator Patty Murray also remarked during the debate:

“The REAL ID provision has ramifications for privacy, for States rights, and for immigration policy, and I am really disappointed that it has been rammed through as an attachment to a desperately needed bill that funds our troops… I think a lot of us are kind of scratching our heads about how this REAL ID provision ended up in this conference report. I know I didn’t vote for it. I know there wasn’t even a discussion of it in conference… I serve on the conference committee and want to share with my colleagues exactly what happened, so they’ll understand why the sudden appearance of the REAL ID provision is so surprising to many of us… The REAL ID provision will have dramatic and far- reaching changes and puts an unfunded mandate on many states. And yet, it was never brought before a Senate committee, and it was never voted on in the conference… that is exactly why I did not sign the final conference report.”

2.   Unconstitutional Law

REAL ID violates States’ rights under the Tenth Amendment. In 2017, 114 Pennsylvania legislators wrote to President Trump to oppose REAL ID calling it a usurpation, and a privacy violation that creates a “national identity registry.”

Their letter includes the following statements:

“The Tenth Amendment establishes that “[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively…” By “federalizing” driver licensing, the REAL ID Act usurps this power reserved to the states.           Given that the REAL ID

Law inserts the federal government into a power reserved to the states, we believe that Congress had no constitutional authority to be involved in drivers’ licensing.”

3.   Unconstitutional Penalties

In the fall of 2024, 44 percent of state driver’s licenses and IDs nationwide were not compliant with REAL ID. CCHF plans to increase that number.

The latest final TSA/DHS rule, issued January 14, 2025, permits “progressive enforcement” for two years (May 7, 2025 – May 7, 2027), including a suggested “three strikes” action against travelers at airports without REAL IDs. The Congressional Review Act would allow members of Congress to rescind this REAL ID rule within 60 legislative days (2025).

Freedom is at stake. Americans and lawful residents who refuse the unconstitutional National ID should not be penalized by being refused access to federal facilities or threatened with not being able to board an airplane, or other future restrictions. This and all other REAL ID rules should be rescinded, and the federal REAL ID law should be repealed to stop the violation of the constitutional rights of all 50 states and the American people.

4.   Deliberate Deception

TSA, Department of Homeland Security, and administrations, starting with Obama, have promoted the “without a REAL ID, you can’t fly” LIE.

TSA materials focus on exchanging a state driver’s license for a National ID and do not mention the 15 other TSA-acceptable documents that can be used to board an airplane, including a passport. However, TSA states online that you can fly without an ID of any type — but may be subject to additional screening steps. https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/identification

The 2008 DHS REAL ID rule acknowledges that REAL ID is not necessary for flying: “DHS notes that individuals without a REAL ID-compliant document will still be able to enter federal facilities and board commercial aircraft and these rules cannot determine what alternative documents are acceptable for those purposes.” (Gilmore vs Gonzales ruling says a search will suffice.)

5. Collaborative Collusion

Government bureaucrats in state agencies colluded with AAMVA (see #7) and the Dept. of Homeland Security to secretly receive DHS funding to implement REAL ID despite 25 states passing laws prohibiting compliance with the federal REAL ID Act and another 12 states passing resolutions opposing REAL ID.

In a 2020 article titled “Implementing the REAL ID Act: Intergovernmental Conflict and Cooperation in Homeland Security Policy,” by Magdalena Krajewska, she wrote:

“Nevertheless, it is telling that despite what was happening at the higher level, DMV chiefs were largely cooperative with the REAL ID Office. One interviewee said that although some governors prohibited their states from becoming compliant with REAL ID, those states still implemented perhaps 95 percent of the Act’s requirements. State DMVs would use the language of being “consistent” with the Act’s requirements, rather than “compliant,” thereby avoiding embarrassing their governors, while at the same time making the licenses more secure.”

6.   Sole Control

The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has unilateral authority to expand required uses of REAL ID, including: “No card, No care”.

REAL ID law: “the term ‘official purpose’ includes but is not limited to accessing Federal facilities, boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, entering nuclear power plants, and any other purposes that the Secretary shall determine.” Buy a gun? Mortgages? Hotel rental?

In the 2008 REAL ID rule by DHS, they wrote, “DHS does not agree that it must seek approval of Congress as a prerequisite to changing the definition in the future. . . as 201(3) of the Act gives discretion to the Secretary of Homeland Security to determine other purposes.”

7.   Future Digital IDs

AAMVA, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (state DMV officials) testified before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security on December 5, 2023, in support of embedding REAL ID on mobile phones—accessible remotely and in real time.