In this photo taken April 6, 2016, a sign at the federal courthouse in Tacoma, Wash., is shown to inform visitors of the federal government's REAL ID act, which requires state driver's licenses and ID cards to have security enhancements and be issued to people who can prove they're legally in the United States. Lawmakers in Washington state are now trying to bring the state in compliance with the law, and if state-issued identification cards and licenses are not changed, residents may have to produce additional forms of ID when boarding domestic flights at U.S. airports beginning in January, 2018. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

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 and is a harmful government intrusion and violates their privacy.

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF), 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. 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, and may 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. 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.”

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.

Twila Brase is president and co-founder of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF, www.cchfreedom.org), a Minnesota-based national organization dedicated to preserving patient-centered health care and protecting patient and privacy rights.

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