LAS VEGAS (May 9) -- After becoming one of only 10 states to issue a new kind of driver's license with beefed-up security features, Nevada became the first to stop issuing them -- a move that has delighted privacy advocates and outraged the governor.
The state called a halt to the "Real ID-compliant" licenses after temporary regulations put into place by Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons ran out and legislators under pressure from Real ID opponents failed to approve permanent ones.
More than 46,000 such licenses have been issued in the four months since Gibbons approved them via an executive order, but in Nevada such fiats can last only 120 days and cannot be renewed. It appears the state won't address the matter again at least until February, when the legislature reconvenes.
Steven Friess
Nevada stopped issuing new "Real ID-compliant" driver's licenses like this one after temporary rules put in place lapsed and lawmakers failed to institute permanent ones.
"Nobody wanted this [license]," Rebecca Gasca, public advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, told AOL News. "There were diverse groups speaking out against Real ID because of the privacy implications, because of the threat to due process, because of the exorbitant costs. ... It would create a de facto national ID card with national standards and national requirements."
Nevada had issued the new licenses under the Real ID Act, a federal law passed in 2005 to tighten security on state-issued identifications in the wake of revelations that several 9/11 hijackers had legitimate driver's licenses. In the Silver State, the change meant that the Department of Motor Vehicles would require two forms of identification as well as proof of Nevada residency in order to issue a Real ID-compliant license, which features additional anti-counterfeiting elements and a gold star.
The state has already spent $2 million to get the system going, and it reportedly may shell out another $400,000 to revert to the previous licensing system. Nevada received $4.4 million in federal grants to bring the state into compliance.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's regulations require all states to comply with the law and reform their driver's license issuance procedures to meet the federal requirements by May 2011, but the deadline has already been moved back several times as states balk at the mandate.
Nine states, including Indiana and Florida, are presently compliant. Many others, including Maine, Montana and Washington, have passed resolutions insisting they would never comply.
Opponents of the measure fear it will lead to a national, government-owned database of personal information accessible to all sorts of agencies that otherwise would need to get court orders. Yet Real ID supporters insist these fears are unfounded.
"The federal government already has our Social Security numbers, they don't need anything more," Gibbons spokesman Daniel Burns told AOL News. "They can get everything they want with that. The notion of DHS creating a second database -- why would that be necessary? The IRS already has that. ... People are acting like it's some sort of Big Brother thing when it's not."
The controversy puts Gibbons, a staunch small-government conservative running for re-election this year, in an unusually adversarial position with many groups that traditionally have supported him and his philosophy. John Wagner, chairman of the intensely conservative Independent American Party, noted that while "we usually agree with him on most things and we think he's done a pretty good job for the state of Nevada," on this issue Gibbons is wrong.
"It's an intrusion on people's privacy," said Wagner, whose party is the third-largest in the state, with 60,000 registered voters. "It wouldn't stop any terrorists or anything that's happened so far. But the next thing they'll do is put an RFID chip in it and know where we are at all times."
Such talk drives the governor crazy because it's so far afield from what the Real ID Act -- and Nevada's implementation of it -- actually does, Burns said.
"The black-helicopter people with the tinfoil hats, they influence a lot of people, including legislators, and meanwhile we're wasting money, we're less safe and we're less sure that Nevada's tax money is being spend on Nevadans," Burns said. "The people who are fearmongers can be very loud and talk to large groups of people via e-mails and blogs. Enough people have been persuaded that this is a scary thing, and that's tragic because it would make the nation safer."
To combat what Burns called misinformation, a "myths, facts and answers" site was posted last week on the Nevada DMV's website. Among the entries:
Myth: The new [Real ID-compliant] license is a de facto national ID card. Fact: ... Nevada's standards for identification met the Real ID Act's requirements long before the Real ID Act was passed. The only change is that to get the new Nevada driver's license, the documents used to prove identity are electronically verified. It is still a Nevada driver's license and the documents required to prove identification ... are the same documents the DMV has been requiring for years.
Myth: The Real ID Act calls for a national database of driver information. Fact: IT DOES NOT. There is no national database linked to the Real ID Act. Ironically, banks and credit agencies have far more information on individuals than any DMV does.
Myth: The new driver's licenses will not stop terrorism. Fact: It's not a complete solution but it is a piece of the puzzle. It's certainly easier to catch terrorists if they are required to prove their identity. The Real ID Act also enhances protections against identity theft and a whole range of crimes such as welfare fraud. It enables states to enforce the "one driver, one license" concept by verifying whether a motorist holds licenses in multiple states.
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