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<\/a>Bruce Lohof<\/p><\/div>\n
Montana\u2019s response, though not swift, was strong: In 2007 the 60th\u00a0Legislature made Real ID implementation illegal, saying that it was \u201cinimical to the security and well-being of the people of Montana, will cause unneeded expense and inconvenience to those people, and was adopted by the U.S. Congress in violation of the principles of federalism contained in the \u2026 U.S. Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then-Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who signed the legislation, doubled down on the inimical-to-security fear, telling Washington that \u201cMontana objects to the implementation of Real ID for a number of reasons, the most important of those being its threat to our privacy rights. … Montana will not agree to share its citizens\u2019 personal\u00a0and private information through a national database.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other footfalls came quickly. They\u2019ll culminate on Jan. 22, 2018, when Transportation Security Administration officers will begin to inform you that your Montana driver\u2019s license is an invalid form of ID and that \u201cyou will need an alternative identification to fly in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n
The quarrel raises more questions than answers. For instance, Montanans all over the spectrum, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Alt-Right wingnuts, are opposed to the Real ID act. Why is that? For instance, folks who\u2019ve already shared, via social media, everything from their religious beliefs to their shoe size, fear the creation of a \u201cnational database.\u201d Why is that?<\/p>\n
In most industrial democracies, and in many developing nations, citizens routinely carry evidence of their bona fides in their pockets or purses. What they carry is real<\/em>ly an ID. \u2026 in America, not so much. Why is that?<\/p>\n But the irony of the quarrel is that folks who resist the creation of a Real ID often support agendas that cannot be pursued without one.<\/p>\n For instance, law enforcement officers in Maricopa County, Arizona, have profiled Phoenix drivers who look Latino, requiring them to prove that they are not\u2014in the term of art\u2014\u201cundocumented immigrants.\u201d By definition, an \u201cundocumented immigrant\u201d has no documents to offer. But then, absent a Real ID, neither does anyone else.<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/div><\/div>Or for instance, President-Elect Donald Trump and many of his supporters in Montana have advocated the establishment of a \u201cMuslim Registry,\u201d until\u2014as Trump famously said\u2014\u201cour country\u2019s representatives can figure out what is going on.\u201d But a \u201cMuslim Registry\u201d requires an \u201ceverybody registry.\u201d How else can it be known that a Muslim living in, say, Billings, Mont., simply didn\u2019t register?<\/p>\n