NYCLU: Spitzer’s Stunning Lack of Courage

“In announcing today that New York will submit to President Bush and the Real ID Act, Governor Spitzer set aside a common sense policy on driver’s licenses, bowed to fear-mongering and turned New York into a poster child for the Bush administration’s assault on civil liberties.

By supporting Real ID — the country’s first ever national I.D. card — the governor is handing over the personal information of all New Yorkers to the president with the worst record on civil liberties in the history of the United States. Governor Spitzer is voluntarily aligning himself with President Bush and the administration that brought us the Patriot Act.

The governor’s stunning lack of courage is aiding the Bush administration in clamping down on civil liberties. Seventeen states have passed legislation critical of the Real ID Act. Seven of those states * recognized that Real ID tramples on civil liberties and passed binding legislation to stop it. This unfunded program is a disaster on wallets, too — to the tune of more than $23 billion to tax-payers.

Real ID was on the road to failure and it is indeed disappointing that Governor Spitzer is coming to its rescue. The internal passport that is Real ID contains so many threats to our privacy, security and pocketbooks, that it is not a risk that New Yorkers should be compelled to take.”

* Those states are Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Washington.