Privacy Digest

BillingsGazette.com :: Governor signs bill defying U.S. ID law: "HELENA - Gov. Brian Schweitzer said 'no, nope, no way, hell no' Tuesday to national driver's licenses, signing into law a bill supporters say is one of the strongest rejections to the federal plan.

The move means the state won't comply with the Real ID Act, a federal law that sets a national standard for driver's licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases.

Though several states have either passed or are considering resolutions or bills against the act, Montana is the first state to outright deny its implementation, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

'This is the first one saying, 'We're not doing it,' ' said Scott Crichton of the Montana ACLU.

The federal law says the federally approved identification cards eventually would be necessary to board airplanes or enter federal buildings.

'We also don't think that bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., ought to tell us that if we're going to get on a plane we have to carry their card, so when it's scanned through they know where you went, when you got there and when you came home,' said Schweitzer, a Democrat.

'This is still a free country and there are no freer people than the people that we have in Montana.'

The federal government has never been popular with Montanans. The federal Patriot Act was a common whipping boy on the campaign trail last year, and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle lined up this year against the Real ID Act.

Montana's lawmakers had two bills opposed to the Real ID Act to consider this session: one opposing it, another to nullify it.

The one opposing the act, sponsored by Rep. Brady Wiseman, D-Bozeman, and signed by the governor, was unanimously approved by both chambers, while the other bill was seen as unconstitutional and was rejected by a Senate committee.

Wiseman said getting support for his bill was an easy sale."

(Read Original Article - Via BillingsGazette.com.)