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Drivers license for airport ID? Maybe not

Posted by (Los Angeles) on

This could be a real mess ........

(Frommers) Driver Licences From Four U.S. States May No Longer Be Accepted As I.D. at Airports in 2016. And those states are: New York, New Hampshire, Louisiana, and Minnesota.

In December of 2014, the first phase of the Real ID Act from Congress and the Department of Homeland Security went into effect. It's mandate was to standardize government-issued IDs across the United States, specifically for the purpose of allowing people entry to Federal facilities. The states would have until 2016 to comply, when it came to airports (they had to comply earlier for other sorts of facilities) and all but four states—New York, New Hampshire, Louisiana, and Minnesota—now meet federal standards.

So what will happen when flyers from those states try to use driver licenses to get through security for domestic flights? That's not clear at this point. USA Today reached out to the DHS and were told that "no announcements" were ready on this matter

Posted by
16554 posts

I read the same on Time/Money. We live in one of those states, and have passports that we could use instead but it could be a real mess for those who don't if the DHS digs in their heels. I'm also baffled at why the states in question allegedly decided to ignore the compliance requirements.

Posted by
300 posts

I'm also baffled at why the states in question allegedly decided to ignore the compliance requirements.

They saw it as trampling on citizens' privacy rights. Not everyone is in favor of national ID cards.

What's more irking is that there isn't anything special about the licenses in most of the other 46 states that make them "good" and the licenses from these four "bad." It's just that the other states have made deals or have had their objections interpreted as steps toward compliance. See http://www.cato.org/blog/no-america-you-dont-need-comply-real-id and http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/real-id-state-state-update

Posted by
2092 posts

I believe Idaho is another State that isn't in compliance.

Posted by
7161 posts

"They saw it as trampling on citizens' privacy rights. Not everyone is in favor of national ID cards."

How would a national ID card be any more trampling on citizens' privacy rights than other national forms of ID such as SS# or US passport? Makes no sense to me.

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