NPR Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and every single state legislator have refused to implement the Real ID Act, a congressional mandate to create standardized identification documents. Schweitzer tells NPR the law is "kooky" and "hare-brained," asserting that half a dozen high school students and a Kinko's are all that would be needed to subvert it.
Schweitzer wonders why Homeland Security demands that states agree now to provisions that are not yet determined and won't be implemented for at least seven years. Montana has until May to reverse its position or, in the ominous words of a Homeland Security spokesman, "showing up at the airport with a Montana driver's license will be no better than showing up without any identification." (More Brian Schweitzer stories.)