I've been using my passport to fly ever since 9/11, because I saw where the wind was blowing. We've been falling into a "papers please" state for a long time.

My dream is that the government abolishes the TSA and we return to pre-9/11 security. Recently, this was proposed in Congress. [1]

[1]: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/118...

> The hijackers responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were carrying U.S. driver’s licenses and state IDs.

That’s bothered me about so much airport (and elsewhere) security after Sept 11… few of the new rules would have prevented the disaster that triggered them.

So now everything is a constant hassle / expense, and seem to prevent nothing.

The combination of lockable bulletproof cockpit doors, and everyone realizing that a hostage situation on a plane means that everyone dies, helped make sure that 9/11 would not be repeated. The rest of it is security theater.

It's absolutely security theater.

And remember the median number of flights taken by an American in a year is zero. The majority of the population is never affected by it, so they can happily vote and support anything that makes them feel more secure or like they're helping, with no downside they ever feel.

Really the only meaningful change was locking the cockpit during flight from the inside.

Nonsense. They force you to show up early, while simultaneously preventing you from bringing food or drinks.

Those 3x price markups on fast food aren't going to pay for themselves, you know.

You can bring food. You’re right about drinks though. Albeit it’s not very hard to find free water in airports.

Most gun control attempts that I see would at least in theory possibly prevented the tragedy that inspired them.

The real id, would not have done anything.

Except you don't need an ID to fly, at least according to the TSA lawyers who secretly briefed the Court in Gilmore v. Ashcroft. The TSA assured the Court that anyone without an ID could just submit to a more stringent security check so they didn't need to decide the constitutionality of requiring an ID.

That was the case a number of years ago to my surprise (had somehow managed to lose my license between the car and the airport door). These days I use my Global Entry card so always have license as backup. No idea if it’s still true or will be after RealID kicks in.

It should remain true.

I thought I’d read somewhere that Kansas wasn’t real ID compliant but apparently you can request a non Real ID but by default I got a Real ID compliant driver’s license. The fact that I had to Google it and read the KS department of revenue’s website to verify is worrying for the general public though. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride for the new several months/years.

Isn't it incredible how low quality government documentation can be?

> If you’re in doubt, your passport will get you on a plane, whether it’s a domestic or an international flight.

That's my approach, since I keep a current passport I'll just carry that if I need to fly, and get the Real ID the next time my license expires in a few years.

A passport card is valid for all domestic flights, as well as land travel to Canada and Mexico. I prefer it to my passport book when appropriate as it's sturdier and easier to carry.

It's also nice on international trips as proof of U.S. citizenship (though you'll usually need your book at border crossings)

The thing that's irritating about Read ID (at least in Ohio) is that the BMV would let you get an Ohio ID cheaper than a Real ID. Seems like a money grab when you know that people are eventually going to need a Real ID to fly.

Washington charges more for a Real ID than an Unreal ID too; I assume because it costs more to issue a Real ID and WA likes to push costs of services onto users of services more than other states I've lived in.

I think I priced it out and getting a passport card should have less fees than getting a Real ID here. But then I didn't get around to getting a passport card; I'll just use my full passport for flying and keep my Unreal ID.

Personally, I'm surprised this deadline hasn't been pushed back yet, given that every other deadline has been pushed back, and the original plan was 2008(!)

What is the big security improvement of the new id's? The article makes no mention of that.

I tried to figure out the same, it seems to me that the issue is that US drivers licenses have historically been kinda shitty, with very little validation done to ensure the identity of the person that the licens is issued to. There's also some requirement about the drivers database being available across states, which apparently it wasn't previously.

Without knowing, my take is that it's one of those cases where each state has behaved more like individual countries, rather than a subdivision of a larger nation. So you drivers licens isn't really worth much out of state, at least not for validating your actual identity.

I could be wrong, it seems very unclear what Real ID actually is.

I suspect it became more standardized than it used to be. My original PA drivers license was a bit of index stock with no photo. Things have obviously changed but states, as I understand it? Still had significantly different verification requirement and varying degrees of information sharing. RealID isn’t quite a backdoor to an (unacceptable to most)national ID but it probably comes close.

Real ID is more about standardization of the minimum bar than a specific new improvement. What the actual changes are from before depends on the state/territory you look at and what they used to do. You can read about the specific checks required here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_ID_Act#Provisions

It's not necessarily a "big" security improvement but there are somewhat more stringent requirements for identity verification.

https://www.dhs.gov/real-id/real-id-faqs

The main difference is that the record is added to a federal database. The actual ID is pretty much the same. There is some effort to make all the states' IDs look similar in terms of layout. At low-traffic airports if you're from a low-population state the person looking at your ID might not have seen one today.

gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/travel/real-id-deadline-w...

There's going to be de-facto enforcement of street-level ID requirements in the US very soon, as more and more power is handed to ICE with less accountability.