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| See ACLU in the news! Press Releases - 2007 Press Releases - 2006 Press Releases - 2005 Press Releases - 2004 Legislative Testimony |
ACLU Urges General Assembly to Opt Out of Invasive Real ID FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 26, 2008 Contact: Annapolis, MD – American Civil Liberties Union Technology and Liberties Program Advocacy Coordinator Noam Biale today urged members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee to support a bill halting Maryland Department of Transportation and Motor Vehicle Administration funding for Real ID, introduced by Maryland State Senator Jennie Forehand (D-17). The Department of Homeland Security released regulations last month for states to comply with the national ID program, but they did little to stop the privacy, cost and constitutional problems with the Real ID Act. Seventeen states have passed legislation decrying the program, and Maryland has introduced a bill that would effectively end our state’s participation. Real ID, an invasive, costly national driver’s license program, is a largely unfunded mandate from the federal government that requires all states to issue federally standardized driver’s licenses and forces state governments to shoulder the bulk of the cost. It places sensitive information held on the licenses into massive, nationally linked databases vulnerable to identity theft. The following can be attributed to Noam Biale, advocacy coordinator for the ACLU Technology and Liberty Program: “The fact that the Department of Homeland Security has consistently failed to fix the problems with Real ID is no surprise – the law has been unfixable from the beginning. No state should be bullied into giving up their residents’ privacy in exchange for a pat on the back from an administration that will be long gone before this program even goes into effect. Real ID won’t make us safer – in fact, it makes us all less secure. It’s up to the General Assembly to deliver a wake-up call to Washington before the Real ID nightmare becomes a reality.” Click here to learn more about Real ID: ### |
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