Mark Sanford's Executive Masterpiece On Real ID to Homeland Security

Source: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/south-carolina.html

South Carolina Rails Against Real ID, Asks Not To Be Punished

By Ryan Singel
March 31, 2008

On the last possible day to ask for an extension to pending federal identification rules, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford eschewed southern gentility and instead sent the federal government a scathing critique of Real ID, that almost parenthetically requested that the federal government not punish South Carolina citizens come May 11.

South Carolina's Republican governor asked the feds not to reject South Carolina licenses come May 11, but added three pages of anti-Real ID arguments in the letter.
AP/Mary Ann Chastain

Now the Department of Homeland Security has to decide by Tuesday whether to lose face by accepting the Republican governor's letter as proof that South Carolina has strong I.D. cards or to force a showdown by refusing to let South Carolinians without passports from entering Social Security buildings and federal courthouses starting May 11. They'd also not be allowed to use their driver's licenses to board planes and would instead have to submit to pat-downs and puffer machines to get on a plane if they didn't use a passport to fly domestically.

South Carolina, along with Montana, New Hampshire and Maine, entered March as rogue states that had not asked for extensions to the Real ID rules. Those states argued that the federal government should pay for the billions in costs and that the system will put people's personal information at risk of being used by government data-miners, snooped on by prying bureaucrats or stolen by hackers.

The rules, which originated as an amendment to a must-pass military spending bill in 2005, create a de-facto national identity card. States are free not to follow the federal government standards or not interconnect their databases with other states, but citizens of such states would not be able to use their driver's licenses to enter federal buildings or for identification at the airport.

DHS maintained that the states that were granted an extension until 2010 for compliance with the recently finalized rules had to commit to complying with Real ID.

That stance softened two weeks ago after California's DMV head wrote in to clarify that its earlier request for an extension was not a guarantee the nation's most populous state would comply with Real ID.

Then Montana governor Brian Schweitzer (D) negotiated a way to get an extension, while never actually asking for one. New Hampshire cut-and-paste Montana's letter days later, winning itself an extension as well. Maine followed suit last Wednesday, but still hasn't gotten an answer on Monday, according to a spokesman for the governor.

Today, Sanford followed suit, listing in a letter all the safety features of South Carolina's driver's licenses and asking that his citizens be treated like Montana's:

Given the way DHS has agreed to accept Montana's driver licenses after May 11th, one would reasonably expect -- and I would respectfully ask -- that DHS will be consistent and not needlessly penalize the citizens of South Carolina and allow them to travel and enter federal buildings like the citizens of other states.

That likely would have been enough to spare South Carolinians, but Sanford went on for another three and a half pages in the letter (.pdf), listing his arguments against Real ID.

Sanford railed against the lack of debate on the bill ("his sensitive subject received far less debate that steroid use in baseball"), the cost ("There is something wrong when the federal government imposes the burden of creating a national ID system on the states - but only pays for two percent of the cost") and limited government issues ("We have no assurances that at some point we won't need a Real ID to open a bank account or purchase a gun.")

Source: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/defiant-south-c.html

Defiant South Carolina Wins Real ID Extension

By Ryan Singel
March 31, 2008

Despite blasting a defiant last day letter to the Homeland Security Department over pending federal rules Monday, South Carolina Republican governor Mark Sandford secured South Carolinians the right to use their driver's licenses to board planes without being  patted down, at least until 2010.

Despite telling the feds he would not comply with their rules, South Carolina's Republican governor successfully prevented the feds from punishing his states' residents as Homeland Security had promised to do.
AP/Mary Ann Chastain

Just hours after getting Sanford's jeremiad, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff signed the state's extension (.pdf) personally, writing that "like Montana, your letter sets forth in detail how South Carolina will in fact meet the principal security requirements of Real ID – as a matter of South Carolina's independent judgment, and not as an act  of compliance."

Like other rebellious states, South Carolina rejected Real ID mandates, saying the $4-$20 billion dollar program was an unfunded mandate that invaded citizens' privacy and put them at risk of identity theft due to massive, connected databases of sensitive information.

DHS counters that having current license holders have to get certified documents and reprove their eligibility for identification will prevent terrorism and be useful for other purposes such as curtailing illegal immigration and identity theft.

Maine remains the lone state not to have been given an extension, despite having written a letter not unlike ones from Montana and New Hampshire. All of them explained how the respective state had strong license security procedures but wouldn't comply with the Real ID mandate.

Sanford's letter was extraordinary, however, since he used most of his words explaining why he thought Real ID was invasive, unfunded and dangerous.

Chertoff replied personally and substantively, writing that "thoughtful responsible and honest concerns sthat deserve equally thoughtful responses."

By contrast, Montana and New Hampshire got terse letters from Stewart Baker, a sharp-tongued assistant policy secretary who's been accusing critics of Real ID of throwing spaghetti on the walls.

It's clear the rebel states won, according to Bill Scannell, a spokesman for the Identity Project which has been fighting against Real ID.

"Montana's letter smirked," Scannell said. "New Hampshire's was down right disrespectful and you could see the scotch tape from where they cut-and-pasted pages from their DMV handbook."

"But Sanford's five-page letter was Fort Sumter-quality," Scannell said, referring to the South Carolina military installation where the Civil War started.

That leaves Maine as the only rogue left rogue, though the state is likely to get its own extension late Monday.

Once Maine gets its letter from DHS, the department can declare victory in improving the security of the nation's driver's licenses and leave the ongoing funding and privacy problems for a new administration to deal with come January 2009.