By Andy Dean @ Adobe Stock
REAL ID was born of the fear following the 9/11 attacks. Americans temporarily forgot their concerns about freedom and the Constitution in the face of what they believed was an existential crisis. Politicians took advantage of their fears and misguided trust to pass a number of new laws that would take away Americans’ freedoms. One of those was the REAL ID Act. At the Cato Institute, Patrick G. Eddington explains the constitutional issues with the act, writing:
The REAL ID ACT also raises several constitutional issues that have never been adjudicated.
The disparate approach to regulating different modes of travel implicates the constitutional doctrine of “unconstitutional conditions” — a principle that prohibits the government from conditioning the receipt of a benefit (in this case, the ability to use a particular mode of transportation) on the surrender of a constitutional right (the right to travel).
REAL ID also potentially creates an end-run around direct regulation of the right to travel. The Supreme Court has consistently ruled that the federal government can’t directly prohibit interstate travel, but by making it increasingly difficult to travel without REAL ID, the government accomplishes a similar result indirectly.
Moreover, it raises equal protection concerns. When fundamental rights are at stake, differential treatment of citizens requires a compelling government interest and narrow tailoring. The question becomes whether the security benefits of REAL ID justify the burden placed on particular modes of travel. The record to date clearly shows they do not.
Finally, it implicates the principle of proportionality in constitutional law — whether the restriction on rights is proportional to the government interest being served. The differential treatment of air and rail travel exposes the hypocrisy and inconsistency in how the government assesses security risks and the appropriate responses to those risks.
The government has no business knowing who I am or why I’m traveling domestically on an airliner unless I’m wanted for a crime or have given reason to suspect my intentions by having weapons on my person or in my luggage during screening. REAL ID obliterates the idea of freedom of travel, which is why it should be abolished.
Read more here.
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