American Civil Liberties Union

Remember that time when Congress passed a law that tried to create a national database of drivers' information and turn drivers' licenses into national identification cards? And remember how groups from across the political spectrum joined forces to tell Congress, the president, and their state lawmakers that they objected to this law, known as Real ID, calling it an unfunded mandate that trampled on states' rights, decrying its lack of sufficient protections and potential to increase racial discrimination, worrying about its negative impact on the Amish and other religious denominations, fretting that it would create an expansive and cumbersome new bureaucracy or facilitate the tracking of individuals? Opposition to Real ID united everyone from the National Governors Association to the ACLU to the American Conservative Union, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and National Organization for Women to Gun Owners of America, to name a few.

It’s a strange situation. What if they passed a federal statute that no one obeyed? Typically this isn’t a problem – there are a host of federal entities tasked with making sure that what Congress passes is followed. But in the case of Real ID, that is exactly what has happened.

The Real ID Act was aimed at improving drivers’ license security but its actual effect would have been to turn those same licenses into a national ID card. The law required a national database of all drivers and a common way for all licenses to be read by scanners. States would have to meet the standards in order for their citizens to use their driver’s licenses to board airplanes or enter federal facilities.