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Civil Liberties Union
NYCLU: It’s Time to Reject Real ID Once-and-for-All
In response to Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s announcement that he will put on hold his plan to adopt Real ID, the following can be attributed to Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union: “While it is encouraging that Governor Spitzer is holding off, for now, on implementing the Real ID Act in New York, the governor needs to put an end once-and-for-all to his cheerleading of President Bush’s national ID card. The Real ID Act is rotten to its core: It will create a national database on hundreds of millions of Americans, and can be used to track lawful New Yorkers’ everyday activities."
In response to Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s announcement that he will put on hold his plan to adopt Real ID, the following can be attributed to Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union:
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While it is encouraging that Governor Spitzer is holding off, for now, on implementing the Real ID Act in New York, the governor needs to put an end once-and-for-all to his cheerleading of President Bush’s national ID card. The Real ID Act is rotten to its core: It will create a national database on hundreds of millions of Americans, and can be used to track lawful New Yorkers’ everyday activities.
What starts as a swipe of the card to board an airplane or enter a federal building, which the Real ID Act already demands, could easily expand into requirements to scan the card to pick up your child from school or to attend a baseball game. With each swipe of the card, a digital fingerprint will be left behind, though how it will be used is far from clear. Coming from the administration that brought us the Patriot Act and warrantless wiretapping, the possibilities are endless, as is the potential for abuse.
New York does not have to submit to President Bush’s Real ID Act. In fact, the Real ID Act contains so many threats to our privacy, security and pocketbooks that 17 states* have already passed legislation critical of it. Governor Spitzer must join with bipartisan movement of Democratic and Republican governors across the country that has rejected the Real ID Act as a threat to American values.”
* Seven states passed binding legislation to stop Real ID (Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Washington), and 10 additional states registering their dissent (Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, North Dakota, Nebraska, Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee, Hawaii and Missouri).