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Gov signs law rejecting Real ID act
By The Associated Press
HELENA - Gov. Brian Schweitzer signed a law Tuesday rejecting national driver's licenses for Montanans, saying the message to the federal government was "no, nope, no way, hell no."
The bill the governor signed rejected implementing the Real ID act in Montana, a federal law that sets a national standard for driver's licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases.
Montana joined two other states, Idaho and Arkansas, in enacting laws that outright refuse to comply with the federal law, according to National Conference on State Legislatures. Washington's legislature has also passed a similar bill and Maine and Hawaii have passed resolutions opposing the Real ID act.
The law says that the federally approved identification cards eventually would be necessary to board airplanes or enter federal buildings. "We also don't think that bureaucrats in Washington D.C. ought to tell us that if we're going to get on a plane we have to carry their card, so when it's scanned through they know where you went, when you got there and when you came home," Schweitzer said.
"This is still a free country and there are no freer people than the people that we have in Montana."
By The Associated Press
HELENA - Gov. Brian Schweitzer signed a law Tuesday rejecting national driver's licenses for Montanans, saying the message to the federal government was "no, nope, no way, hell no."
The bill the governor signed rejected implementing the Real ID act in Montana, a federal law that sets a national standard for driver's licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases.
Montana joined two other states, Idaho and Arkansas, in enacting laws that outright refuse to comply with the federal law, according to National Conference on State Legislatures. Washington's legislature has also passed a similar bill and Maine and Hawaii have passed resolutions opposing the Real ID act.
The law says that the federally approved identification cards eventually would be necessary to board airplanes or enter federal buildings. "We also don't think that bureaucrats in Washington D.C. ought to tell us that if we're going to get on a plane we have to carry their card, so when it's scanned through they know where you went, when you got there and when you came home," Schweitzer said.
"This is still a free country and there are no freer people than the people that we have in Montana."