theposse.org: Real ID

Real ID

Posted by mattsteg at 2005/05/11 18:04:38 CDT
1984, Papieren Bitte, Privacy, US Constitution

Apparently Real ID has passed through Congress. This is confusing and disturbing for a number of reasons. First of all, it appears to have been stricken from the Senate version of the bill but added back in conference committee. Maybe it's just me, but I'm not comfortable with something of this magnitude being tossed around in conference committee. Secondly, the whole thing was tacked on as a flier onto a defense appropriations bill during a period of manufactured wartime. Yay for crap getting grafted onto can't miss bills. In addition, the bill's pretty flawed (Bruce Schneier has a nice piece on it) in the first place, and causes more problems than it solves, all while eroding personal and state freedom and privacy.

All that's a tad scary, but the worst is yet to come. This bill actually gives what amounts to dictatorial power to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.

Quote:

SEC. 102. WAIVER OF LAWS NECESSARY FOR IMPROVEMENT OF BARRIERS AT BORDERS.

Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 note) is amended to read as follows:

IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.
NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court, administrative agency, or other entity shall have jurisdiction--
- to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or
- to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.'.

Read that once more, and pull out your tinfoil hats. The bill explicitly states that the Homeland Secretary can do whatever the heck he wants, based on what he (on his sole discretion) deems necessary. It even goes one further and tells the courts to fuck off as well. I don't know about you but the whole idea of judicial review holds just a small bit of appeal to me.

How does shit like this even pass one house? Nevermind, this is the nation that elected Bush...twice.

Quick update before posting: Here's the bill as passed by both houses. The abovelisted section is on page 84.

2005/05/11 22:04:09 CDT by Temporal

Quote:

NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court, administrative agency, or other entity shall have jurisdiction--

to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or
to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.'.

LOL! Oh my god, I just laughed histerically at that.

Congress thinks that if they simply say "This section is not subject to judicial review.", it won't be? Well, guess what? It's up to a judge to decide whether that statement is constitutional, and no judge -- Democrat, Republican, or otherwise -- is going to decide that it is. Even if it were questionable (which it isn't; it's clearly unconstitutional), any judge would automatically be biased against it!

This is even dumber than the clause of the energy bill that the Senate passed (I think) which proposed extending daylight saving time by two months (which couldn't possibly be applied due to DST being hard-wired into the majority of computer systems).

And, yeah, we really need a rule which says that unrelated topics cannot be combined in the same bill. I think the Minnesota legislature has such a rule.

Added at 2005/05/11 22:09:48 CDT

BTW, I know this isn't documented anywhere, but the "subjects" field for news posts is meant for allowing search-by-subject queries, like so:

http://theposse.org/?subject=1984

So, "1984, Papieren Bitte, Privacy, US Constitution" is probably overdoing it. No harm done, though.

If we're going to use subjects, we should probably keep it restricted to a list, but I sort of figured we wouldn't bother.

2005/05/12 04:12:59 CDT by mattsteg

I figured there was a subject search hidden away somewhere, but I obviously couldn't locate it. I figured I'd just use the subject for some sarcastic commentary.

Of course the whole deal is bullshit, but it's a bit nuts that they'd even try it.

2005/05/14 17:07:02 CDT by burn

I was under the impression that the states could Opt-Out of this. Obviously I haven't read anything on this to any great extent, or to any extent for that matter.

My whole take on this is that in the end a national id would probably be a benefit to the whole nation... just that this particular bill is going about it the wrong way both monetarily and politically.