When a national question is asked in the United States, and the 46 of the 50 states - our “laboratories of democracy” - respond in the same way and get the same positive result, the pressure is on the four holdouts.
Should they bend with the wind and do the same as the other 46? Or should they show why their own way is better?
Minnesota now is facing that question, and on an issue that may catch most residents by surprise: driver’s licenses. For along with New York, Louisiana and New Hampshire, Minnesota is one of four states whose driver’s licences do not comply with the federal Real ID law.
And if the Department of Homeland Security gets tough, then as early as next year, Minnesotans suddenly may be unable to use their driver’s licenses to get through airport security. Instead, they’ll need a passport or similar document, which would take the place of the driver’s licenses as a source of ID.
So, what should the state do?
ADVERTISEMENT
In our view, the best course would be to start the process of bringing Minnesota’s driver’s licenses into compliance. If other states had had miserable experiences with their Real ID-compliant licenses - if the fears of the Real ID law’s critics had proven well-founded, in other words - that would be one thing.
But that hasn’t happened. The Dakotas are a good example: Both North Dakota and South Dakota are “red” states and duly suspicious of key elements of centralized federal power. But we’d guess not one Dakotan in 1,000 knows or cares that their driver’s licenses are Real ID compliant.
It’s a nonissue. It never comes up in conversation. It causes not a moment’s heartache or a second of lost sleep among the vast majority of residents.
We’re confident that the same would hold true in Minnesota if the state were to start issuing Real ID-compliant driver’s licenses.
The Real ID Act “was passed by Congress in 2005 and aims to thwart terrorism by setting national ID standards,” the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported last week.
Minnesota lawmakers were worried about privacy and costs, “and the state responded by passing its own law in 2009 prohibiting it from complying with the Real ID Act.”
The state law “was meant to leverage negotiations with the federal government over the new rules, said state Sen. Scott Dibble, chair of the senate Transportation and Public Safety Committee.”
But “negotiations between the Minnesota and federal governments over policy issues never happened, he said. Now, legislators are discussing what to do next.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Of course, we’ve been wrong before, and maybe the four states with noncompliant IDs were smart to have held out.
If that’s the case, then the critics simply have to show that it’s true, rather than merely claim it. Americans would be open to that evidence; nobody puts blind faith in the U.S. government any more.
Right now, though, the evidence from the 46 other states suggests that complying with the Real ID Act poses no “Real” difficulties at all. And if further investigation confirms that to be the case, then Minnesota shouldn’t hesitate before becoming the 47th state to bring its driver’s licenses into compliance with the law. - Tom Dennis for the Grand Forks Herald
