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U.S. Issues National ID Standards, Setting Stage for a Showdown The federal government issued national standards on Friday that states would have to meet in order for driver’s licenses they issue to qualify as identification at airports and federal buildings, setting the stage for a confrontation with states that have voted not to cooperate. Under a measure known as Real ID legislation, the states must comply by May 11, the third anniversary of the measure’s enactment, or obtain a waiver from the Department of Homeland Security. Meeting the May 11 deadline is impossible because the regulations have been delayed so long, but Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, said Friday that his department would issue a waiver to states that promised to comply later. He laid out a very long schedule, with the final deadline in December 2017, more than 16 years after the events that prompted the law, the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Several states have voted not to comply. One is Washington, where the chairwoman of the Senate’s transportation committee, when asked what difference the new federal rules would make, said, “None.” In Washington and elsewhere, state lawmakers have complained that the requirements add up to a national identification card, that it is too costly, puts privacy at risk and poses severe technical challenges. The Legislature in Maine overwhelmingly passed a resolution last January vowing not to comply. The Legislature there is in its “short session” and can take up only legislation that all the leadership decides is an emergency, said Peggy Schaffer, chief of staff to the Senate majority leader. Ms. Schaffer predicted that pressure from the airlines might force the federal government to reverse itself. The airlines, in fact, are worried, because travelers with driver’s licenses from states that do not have a waiver would have to use a passport or a military ID, or face additional screening, including a pat-down. “This has the potential to be hugely problematic,” said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a trade association of the major carriers. “It appears as if the Department of Homeland Security is placing the burden on the traveling public for a state’s inability to comply.”....
ID Plan Is Broadly Criticized A new Bush administration plan to create national standards for driver's licenses drew heavy criticism yesterday from civil liberties groups, some Republican and Democratic lawmakers, governors, and the travel industry. The critics said the new licenses anticipated under the plan, which is aimed at screening out potential terrorists and uncovering illegal immigrants, could still be forged. They also complained that the program, known as Real ID, would be costly for states to implement, potentially restrict summer travel, and allow private companies access to the personal data of most U.S. citizens. But they also welcomed yesterday's official announcement that states have until May 2011 before they need to begin issuing licenses that meet the department's new guidelines, and until December 2014 to begin replacing current licenses. Drivers over the age of 50 will not have to obtain new licenses until the end of 2017. The deadline extensions give both Congress and future presidents time to reconsider what opponents have depicted as a national identification system that will infringe on privacy rights and leave room for large-scale identity theft....
Justice Dept. Critical Of Appellate Ruling On D.C. Handgun Ban The Bush administration told the Supreme Court last night that, although the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own firearms, an appeals court used the wrong standards in declaring the D.C. handgun ban unconstitutional. The District's ban may well violate the Second Amendment, U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement said in a brief filed ahead of a court deadline, but the case should be sent back to lower courts for evaluation under a "more flexible standard of review." The federal government, protective of its own gun control measures, took issue with the 2 to 1 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which said because handguns are "arms" under the provisions of the Second Amendment, an outright ban is unconstitutional. "The court's decision could be read to hold that the Second Amendment categorically precludes any ban on a category of 'Arms' that can be traced back to the Founding era," the government argued. "If adopted by this court, such an analysis could cast doubt on the constitutionality of existing federal legislation prohibiting the possession of certain firearms, including machineguns." The administration's call for more judicial review -- a disposition that could continue legal wrangling over the ban until after President Bush leaves office -- was far short of an endorsement of the 1976 gun law. Still, it was more than lawyers for the District had hoped for. Peter Nickles, the District's acting attorney general, called the brief a "somewhat surprising and very favorable development."....Once again the Bushies side with Federal power over individual rights.
District attorneys nationwide ask Supreme Court to keep gun ban Prosecutors from across the country, afraid that an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling could erode state gun laws, on Friday asked the high court to uphold a ban on unlicensed handguns. The district attorneys, from 18 jurisdictions, weighed in on a case in which justices will decide whether the Constitution's Second Amendment can overrule tough Washington, D.C. handgun laws. The prosecutors say a ruling against the ban could impair law enforcement and jeopardize public safety. The prosecutors, led by district attorneys Robert M. Morgenthau of New York County and Kamala D. Harris of San Francisco, say they worry that what applies in Washington might have an impact on their communities. The prosecutors submitted the papers as a friend-of-the-court brief, filed by parties who are not part of the case but who have an interest in its outcome. The district attorneys, who represent a total of more than 25 million people, come from jurisdictions that include New York, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, San Diego, Oakland and Atlanta....
San Francisco Gun Ban Ruled Null and Void The California State Court of Appeals announced today their decision to overturn one of the most restrictive gun bans in the country, following a legal battle by attorneys for the National Rifle Association (NRA) and a previous court order against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In 2005, NRA sought an injunction against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to prevent them from enacting one of the nation's most restrictive gun bans. NRA won the injunction, but the City's mayor and Board of Supervisors ignored the court order and approved a set of penalties, including a $1,000 fine and a jail term of between 90 days and six months, for city residents who own firearms for lawful purposes in their own homes. Today's decision came in the form of a 3-0 opinion in favor of the lower court ruling overturning the gun ban....
Federal Court Dismisses Another Lawsuit Against Gun Industry A federal court has once again invoked a 2005 law in dismissing a lawsuit filed against 25 gun manufacturers on behalf of nine "gun crime" victims. The 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act is intended to protect the gun industry from politically motivated lawsuits. The Second Amendment Foundation applauded the unanimous decision by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. "The courts, and the American public, realize that manufacturers, no matter who they are, cannot be blamed for the actions of individuals who misuse their products, whether they are golf clubs, baseball bats, automobiles or firearms," said Second Amendment Foundation Founder Alan Gottlieb said. The lawsuit was filed in January 2000, but according to the opinion written by Associate Judge Michael William Farrell, the 2005 law required the court to dismiss the case. Judge Farrell wrote that Congress, in passing the law, wanted to "prohibit [lawsuits] against manufacturers ... for the harm solely caused by the criminal or unlawful misuse of firearms products ..." Allowing the lawsuit to proceed "would, in our view, frustrate Congress' clear intention."....
Agency will no longer sedate deportees U.S. immigration agents must not sedate deportees without a judge's permission, according to a policy change issued this week. Immigration officials have acknowledged that 56 deportees were given psychotropic drugs during a seven-month period in 2006 and 2007 even though most had no history of mental problems. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit over the practice in June. An internal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo issued Wednesday and obtained Friday by The Associated Press said that effective immediately, agents must get a court order before administering drugs "to facilitate an alien's removal." "There are no exceptions to this policy," said the memo by John Torres, detention and removal director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. To get a sedation order from court, officials must show deportees have a history of physical resistance to being removed or are a danger to themselves....
Feds plan 102 suits to build fence on border The government is readying 102 court cases against landowners in Arizona, California and Texas for blocking efforts to selected sites for a fence along the Mexican border, a Homeland Security Department official said Wednesday. With the lawsuits expected soon, the legal action would mark an escalation in the clash between the government and the property owners. The Bush administration wants to build 370 miles of fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers by the end of the year. A number of property owners have granted the government access to their land, but others have refused. The agency sent letters to 135 of them last month, warning they had 30 days to comply. Thirty-three did so. The deadline for many passed on Monday or should expire this week for others. Resistance is most intense in Texas, which accounts for 71 cases; there are 20 in California and 11 in Arizona, said Russ Knocke, a Homeland Security spokesman....