Your Papers, Please

So the House passed the Real ID Act which prohibits the states from issuing drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Who could be against that?

Well, I could. So could you if you believe in States rights. Or ever plan to buy a gun.

As GOA points out, it's not that simple.

Standardization of driver's licenses has long been recognized as a bureaucratic back-door to implementation of a national ID card. With its required linking of databases and ability of the Secretary of Homeland Security to require a prescribed format, HR 418 takes us well along that road. Concerns are further heightened when the bill fails to even provide lip service to privacy concerns, and proposes to share all of our data on the driver's license database with Canada and Mexico.

Update: Here's the rebuttal from the Editors at NRO.

The American Civil Liberties Union was stridently opposed to the bill, which is a selling point for conservatives. On the other hand, a few voices on the Right also opposed the bill, such as the American Conservative Union and the Free Congress Foundation, based on unfounded fears that the bill is the leading edge of a move toward a centralized national ID card. But the bill merely sets minimum standards for driver's licenses, e.g., that states have to check the legal status of the applicants, that the expiration date of the license should coincide with the visa expiration date of a visitor who obtains a license, and that licenses should be modernized to make them more secure. Insofar as they represent national-security and immigration-control functions that are within the legitimate ambit of the federal government, it is not overreaching for the feds to set minimal requirements. Even Phyllis Schlafly, who yields to no one in her suspicion of the federal bureaucracy, approves of the bill.

I'm not completely convinced by assertions that my fears are "unfounded". If you set the right minimum standards, you have effectively the same license, making it a de-facto National ID. Especially considering all the non-driving uses a license has now.