Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

August 23, 2007

After next May, if you live in a state that has rejected the Federal Real ID act, you will be required to obtain a passport to board an airliner, visit a national park, or conduct business anywhere a federally approved ID is required.

As a growing number of states reject the Real ID program, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff insists that ?if a state doesn't have ... Real ID-compliant licenses then the state cannot expect that those licenses will be accepted for federal purposes.?

It's entirely possible that Washington will put additional teeth in that threat by requiring Real ID-compliant states to reject unapproved driver's licenses. This would make freedom of travel impossible.

What all of this means, in principle, is that the federally approved state driver's licenses required under the Real ID Act amount to an internal travel passport. Although common in totalitarian countries like the old Soviet Union, travel papers are completely foreign to our traditions, history, and principles.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.