A correspondent to a list, who works for the American Civil Liberties union, says:

"You may have seen that the Associated Press broke a story late this week on
a survey of the states conducted by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), which polled state DMVs about implementing the requirements of Real ID identification card and system by the Act's May 2008 deadline.

The states are fairly howling over the costs and practical
difficulties (some say impossibility) of implementing this thing - especially within the deadline set by Congress.

One official was so exasperated that he punctuated his official response by
exclaiming " Can we all just go home now?"

Cost and complexity may turn out to be the Achilles heel that ultimately dooms the Real ID, but it would be a real nightmare for Americans in much
broader ways.

The ACLU has created a new web site www.realnightmare.org which has the complete state by state survey results and a white paper detailing the results, but also covers the profound effects that Real ID
will have on the rights of all Americans.

Real ID will be a privacy nightmare creating a de facto National ID card and
computer database. Among the most disturbing mandates will be the card's standard "machine readable component" like an RFID chip or 2D barcode that it will make its data instantly available to not only every convenience store clerk, but to omnivorous data brokers like Choice Point.

And it will be fundamentally unfair to countless Americans who will find themselves unable to jump through all the bureaucratic hurdles and overcome all the mistaken or lost records that will be required to get the de facto national ID.

Imagine being a former resident of New Orleans or an asylee from Iran being asked to present one of the few official government documents recognized by Real ID – only to learn that have been lost to a hurricane or held by the   government that persecuted you.


Here are the relevant URLS

Website:
http://www.realnightmare.org/

White Paper:
http://www.realnightmare.org/about/89/

AP article: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/3583029.html