Join me today, in person or virtually, at the MIT Public Forums on the REAL ID Act of 2005.
Recent Bluessky Posts- People keep talking about oil prices reacting (or not) to the on-again-off-again shooting war in the Gulf of Hormuz. I'm more concerned about the looming fertilizer crisis. Apparently, 30% of the world's supply goes through the Gulf. Or, now, doesn't. news.un.org/en/interview... July 9, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- Jotwell T&E: Reid Weisbord, Empirical Insights into the Rural Estate Planning Crisis, JOTWELL (July 9, 2026), trustest.jotwell.com/empirical-in.... July 9, 2026 Jotwell
- Jotwell Torts: Nora Freeman Engstrom, Immunity Run Amok: Section 230 and the Distortion of Tort Law, JOTWELL (July 8, 2026) (reviewing Dominic Roschival, A Shield for Whom? The Disastrous Hidden Toll of Section 230 on Children, 94 U. Cin. L. Rev. 257 (2025)), torts.jotwell.com/immunity-run.... July 8, 2026 Jotwell
- Just using version numbers avoids tempting the word deities. July 7, 2026 Michael Froomkin
- Save a new version every 10 minutes. It's the only way. July 7, 2026 Michael Froomkin
Why don’t they just go the whole hog and pass an act banning ‘evil’?
The premise of the government speakers is that because the act has been passed and takes effect May 2008 (an election year!) that it is inevitable. They don’t seem to be taking much notice of the limited sanctions available to force states into compliance. The only sanction available is to refuse to accept IDs from dissenting states, a sanction that is so excessive as to be absurd.
The political context in which implementation is expected to take place is one where there is intense and sustained protest about the use of torture and imprisonment without trial by US authorities. A very significant proportion, approaching a majority of the country believes that the administration is guilty of war crimes.
Don’t states rights include the right to protect the individual from tyranny?
The actual substance of the act or regulations under the act are irrelevant. Implementation of the act requires trust and that does not exist.