REAL ID – Papers, Please!

Sep 14 2026

Court bars AAMVA from giving away driver’s license data — for now

Last Thursday, September 10th, Judge Anthony Trenga of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia heard arguments on whether his temporary restraining order (TRO) barring the bulk transfer of commercial driver’s license records from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) to the U.S. Deopartment of Transportation (DOT) should be converted into a preliminary injunction.

If granted by the court, a preliminary injunction would remain in effect until a final ruling in the lawsuit brought by state governments challenging the data demand by the Feds.

Judge Trenga took the motion for a preliminary injunction under advisement without issuing a decision.

In response to the motion for a preliminary injunction, DOT cooked up an array of patently pretextual and impermissibly ex post facto new excuses for why it needs a dump of all the records of commercial driver’s licenses in AAMVA’s SPEXS database.

DOT also made a new threat to have its Office of Inspector General demand the data, in bulk, without a warrant or probable cause, for investigation of unspecified possible crimes.

It seems unlikely that either the briefs or the oral argument last Thursday have given Judge Trenga any reason to depart from the reasoning in his initial decision granting a TRO.

In that ruling, Judge Trenga found multiple independent ways in which the demand for this data is illegal. He also found that the claimed basis for the demand is a pretext to obtain data that would actually be used (illegally) for immigration enforcement:

The FMCSA has also conceded it has not demanded the MPRs [Master Pointer Records] solely to use those records itself, but also to share them with DHS for “immigration enforcement purpose[s].”… But the relied upon exception under the DPP A that authorizes disclosure of protected data to effectuate FMCSA’s own statutory mandate does not authorize FMCSA to simply pass that data onto another agency….

[W]hen repeatedly pressed at the hearing on this point, the Federal Defendants were unable to explain how the data would in fact assist them in performing their statutory functions, or point to anything that they cannot already do without this data…

Federal Defendants have failed to dispel the compelling inference that they seek these 17 million files in large part, if not primarily, for immigration enforcement, which is not part of [FMCSA]’s statutory mandate….

[B]ecause the Data Demand is unlawful, the public interest inherently favors issuing an injunction….

The issuance of an injunction is also in the public interest given the harm the termination of federal funding to AAMVA would cause since CDLIS would effectively cease its operations and impair Plaintiff States’ ability to issue and renew CDLs and compromise the safe operation of commercial motor vehicles…. Furthermore, as the AAMVA contends, the “CDLIS … is interconnected with all forms of driver licensing” and therefore any shutdown “could disrupt, or even stop, the issuance and renewal of any driver license in the United States.”

Meanwhile, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has moved to intervene in the case on behalf of AFT members including school bus drivers whose commercial driver’s license data is included in the Federal data demand.

AFT says that states — like AAMVA — have their own interests, including retaining Federal funding, and can’t be relied on to represent the interests of individuals whose data is at risk. AFT’s motion to join the case against both DOT and AAMVA is set for a hearing this Wednesday, September 16th.

While Judge Trenga has ordered AAMVA, for now, not to hand over records of all commercial driver’s licenses to DOT, the outcome of the lawsuit remain uncertain.

No one state such as California can control AAMVA’s decisions. The head of each state’s driver licensing agency has one vote on AAMVA’s board of directors, so states that want to hand over AAMVA’s records for immigration enforcement can outvote those that don’t.

The ongoing litigation should teach a lesson to California and other states that once they hand over data to AAMVA, they can’t control to whom or for what purposes it is passed on voluntarily or involuntarily by AAMVA to Federal agencies or other third parties.

The same lesson applies to non-commercial as to commercial driver’s licenses, both of which are stored by AAMVA in the same database. In comments to Wendy Fry and Khari Johnson of Cal Matters, a spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom falsely claimed that AAMVA’s databases of commercial and non-commercial driver’s license records “are separate systems”. In fact, CDLIS records for commercial driver’s licenses and S2S records for non-commercial licenses are both stored by AAMVA in the same SPEXS database.

Californians should have second thoughts about the upload of non-commercial driver’s license records to SPEXS, planned for 2027 and authorized by a law rushed through the state legislature by Governor Newsom while Federal demands for SPEXS data were already pending.

Aug 14 2026

DHS demands AAMVA’s national commercial driver database

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has subpoenaed the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) for a copy of all entries in the CDLIS national database of state-issued commercial driver’s licenses held by AAMVA. The administrative subpoena was issued August 11th and ordered AAMVA to hand over a copy of all records that were found in the CDLIS database any time in the last five years, by 8 am Monday, August 17th.

DOT says that “AAMVA operates the CDLIS database on behalf of the federal government; it is contractually and legally obligated to furnish the requested records at FMCSA’s direction.”

In response, a group of states led by Illinois has filed separate lawsuits in Virginia, where AAMVA is incorporated, against the DHS to quash the subpoena and against AAMVA and the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to enjoin AAMVA from complying with the DOT’s parallel demand for the same data.

US District Judge Anthony Trenga immediately issued temporary stays which prohibit AAMVA from complying with the subpoena and prohibit any actions by DOT to punish AAMVA for noncompliance with the DHS subpoena or DOT demand for CDLIS data. Initial hearings before Judge Trenga in both cases are scheduled for Thursday, August 20th.

We hate to have to say, “We told you so.” But in this case, we told you so.

The CDLIS database is the little brother for commercial driver’s licenses (for truckers) to the big brother SPEXS database for all driver’s licenses and state-issued ID cards. Like SPEXS, CDLIS is a national database of “pointer” records (including name, date of birth, state, license or ID number, and Social Security Number) aggregated from information uploaded by state motor vehicle agencies but held by AAMVA or AAMVA’s contractors.

CDLIS (commercial license) and S2S (non-commercial license) pointer records are all stored in the same SPEXS database as part of AAMVA’s central site:

[Excerpts from AAMVA’s “SPEXS System Specification”]

We’ve warned repeatedly that once data is uploaded to AAMVA’s SPEXS database, Federal agencies could demand it from AAMVA in bulk. State authorities, most recently in California, have brushed off our warnings. But as conceded in declarations from the California Department of Motor Vehicles in one of the new cases, the California DMV has already been uploading CDLIS information about commercial driver’s licenses to SPEXS, and plans to start uploading “S2S” data about all California license to SPEXS in 2027.

The DHS is now seeking to obtain driver’s license data from every state, in bulk, through an administrative subpoena to AAMVA, for use for immigration enforcement, in exactly the manner and for the purpose we predicted and warned about.

AAMVA’s role is noteworthy and contemptible, although unsurprising.

AAMVA was sent a demand for the entirety of the CDLIS database on June 25th, but didn’t tell the states that had uploaded the data in question about the Federal demand until almost a month later on July 23rd. State can’t count on prompt notice from AAMVA.

Even now, AAMVA isn’t challenging the demand for CDLIS data. AAMVA is a defendant, along with the Federal agencies, in the lawsuits brought by states to protect their residents’ data against bulk disclosure to Federal agencies for immigration enforcement.

According to the complaints, the DHS and DOT have threatened to cut off all Federal funding for AAMVA, including funding for CDLIS itself (and presumably also SPEXS), if AAMVA doesn’t hand over the requested data. AAMVA depends on Federal funding, so it can’t afford to challenge Federal demands, making it in effect a captive proxy for the Feds despite being a nominally non-governmental private nonprofit corporation.

Presumably, the Feds will learn from AAMVA’s failure to challenge their demands for the data it holds. Next time, they’ll come back with a subpoena that includes a gag order prohibiting AAMVA from disclosing the subpoena to states that uploaded the data, so states will have no chance to file lawsuits like the ones filed this week.

The obvious next step after that would be a similar demand for SPEXS data about ordinary non-commercial licenses, probably as soon as California completes its planned bulk upload to SPEXS sometime early in 2027.

Officials in California and other states can no longer claim this isn’t possible.

State legislators need to act, now, to withdraw their states from SPEXS, before the DHS expands its data demands from the commercial licenses in CDLIS to all licenses in SPEXS.

Jul 16 2026

Gov. Newsom signs law to upload California data to national ID database

Ignoring objections from grassroots organizations from diverse communities throughout the state and a litany of lies to the legislature from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), Gov. Gavin Newson signed a bill into law this week which authorizes the DMV to upload information about about all California driver’s licenses and state-issued non-driver ID cards to the SPEXS national ID database. The bill, SB-169, is effective immediately.

Gov. Newsom and the DMV have made much of the “guardrails” included in the bill. But as we testified at the last hearing before this bill was enacted (see video starting at 2:48:22) once the DMV uploads information about all California driver’s licenses and IDs to AAMVA (which holds the SPEXS database), the “guardrails” in this bill would do nothing to protect Californians against the threat that Federal or other states’ law enforcement agencies could obtain an order (1) requiring AAMVA to hand over this data in bulk and (2) prohibiting AAMVA from disclosing that order to the DMV or to the Californians — especially vulnerable immigrant and transgender Californians — against whom this data will be weaponized. Neither the DMV nor impacted Californians will even know this has happened, and it won’t be detectable by the audit of DMV records (not AAMVA records) required by SB-169.

In its report on the signing of SB-169, the Sacramento Bee erroneously states (perhaps based on misinformation from the DMV and/or the Governor’s office) that the data sharing authorized by SB-169 is “required by federal law.” But the regulations cited by the Bee apply only to those states that choose to comply with the REAL-ID Act.

As a coalition of 170 organizations said in a joint statement quoted by the Bee:

The first rule of combating tyranny is do not comply in advance. It is imperative that California not willingly give away data that the federal government could turn around and use to harm our communities.

No state is required to comply with the REAL-ID Act. No state is required to upload data about its residents to a database held by a private company, AAMVA.

This is a choice — the wrong choice — for Californians.

Jul 01 2026

Did California’s DMV Director lie to the legislature?

California DMV Director Steve Gordon with other DMV staff at witness table facing members and staff of Senate Budget Subcommittee #5

California DMV Director Steve Gordon responds to questions from members of Senate Budget Subcommittee #5 on Transportation, March 19, 2026

As part of their lobbying of the California legislature to change state law and appropriate $55 million to upload information about all California driver’s licenses and ID state-issued non-driver ID cards to the privately-held SPEXS national ID database, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the office of Governor Gavin Newsom have claimed that the state is already “committed” to the planned upload, despite the fact that it would violate current state law restricting disclosure of license and ID records.

The latest responses to our public records requests show that this claim is false.

At a hearing on March 19, 2026, before Senate Budget Subcommittee $5 on Transportation, DMV Director Steve Gordon testified (see video beginning at 1:42:00):

As I mentioned, you know, California has signed an agreement back in 2028 to effectuate, you know, the REAL ID Act and make sure that in fact, that we’re compliant, including State-to-State. So the agreement we have with the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the Transportation Security Administration, is we have a agreed upon date, which is the February [2027] date that you mentioned.

If the DMV Director, the Governor, or some other state official signed such an agreement purporting to commit the state to take actions prohibited by current state law, that raises important questions as to whether they violated their duty to comply with state laws, or whether they took it upon themselves to commit the legislature to change those laws.

After subsequent meetings in which the DMV and the Governor’s office doubled down on their claim that the state is already bound by signed “agreements” with the DHS and TSA, we filed public records requests with the DMV and the Governor’s office to find out who signed those agreements, when, and what the agreements say.

The response from the DMV and the Governor’s office was that they could find no record of any such agreements.

In our public records request, we cited DMV Director Gordon’s testimony and asked for:

…a copy of each agreement referred to by Director Gordon in this testimony, including the names, titles, and organizational or agency affiliations of each of the persons signing the agreement…. This request includes… the agreement(s) signed in 2018 and the agreement(s) that the state of California and/or the DMV currently has with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and/or Transportation Security Administration regarding the “State-To-State” system, the date of participation by the state of California and/or the DMV in that system, or the February 2027 date referred to by Director
Gordon.

The Office of the Governor told us that it “has no records responsive to your request.” The DMV, after three weeks of delay, told us that it could find no contracts or agreements at all with the TSA, and that the only contracts or agreements with the DHS that it could find were a series of annual contracts for the DMV to pay the DHS per-query fees to use the DHS/USCIS Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to check the citizenship and immigration status of applicants for California driver’s licenses and IDs. The DMV could find no contracts or agreements with the DHS related to the “State-to-State” system.

Assuming these responses to our request for public records to be accurate, there is no agreement form 2018 or more recently with the DHS or TSA committing California to participate in the S2S network or upload any information to the SPEXS database at AAMVA’s central site for S2S, much less any agreement committing the state ot a February 2027 “deadline” for this upload — contrary to DMV Director Gordon’s testimony.

This isn’t a new question or the first time that DMV Director Gordon appears to have lied about REAL-ID Act requirements. In our testimony as the only public witness at a state budget hearing in 2019, we pointed out (see video beginning at 1:10:23) that that the DMV was already making plans that would require this upload, but hadn’t sought funding or authorization from the legislature for it. We also raised many of the other issues that have re-emerged this year when the DMV belatedly sought approval and funding for the upload.

Following that 2019 hearing, DMV Director Gordon admitted to us that he had personally flown without ID and knew that no ID at all is required to fly, despite his personal appearances in DMV videos and “public service announcements” claiming that ID was required and that REAL-ID would be required to fly.

Neither California legislators nor the public should trust the DMV on this issue, especially when the DMV’s Director makes specific claims in official testimony — naming specific parties, dates, and details — of which the DMV can find no record.

As we said at this Monday’s hearing before the full Senate Budget Committee (see video starting at 2:48:22) once the DMV uploads information about all California driver’s licenses and IDs to AAMVA (which holds the SPEXS database), the “guardrails” in this bill would do nothing to protect Californians against the threat that Federal or other states’ law enforcement agencies could obtain an order (1) requiring AAMVA to hand over this data in bulk and (2) prohibiting AAMVA from disclosing that order to the DMV or to the Californians — especially vulnerable immigrant and transgender Californians — against whom this data will be weaponized.

This is a major policy question that shouldn’t be be bundled into the budget. There’s no urgency and no legal deadline — only a date picked by AAMVA for AAMVA’s convenience. There’s no reason not to remove this proposal form this year’s budget and budget trailer bill so that it can be given full and deliberate consideration by the appropriate policy committees of the legislature.

There’s an alternative: As we’ve been telling the DMV and the legislature for years, instread of premature capitulation to DHS threats, California should be working through its Attorney General to prepare to defend Californians against any attempt by the DHS and/or TSA to carry out their lawless threats to interfere with state residents’ right to travel if the state chooses not to comply with the REAL-ID Act.

Jun 27 2026

California legislature agrees to upload driver’s licenses to national database

Withdrawing its opposition under behind-the-scenes pressure from Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawless threats from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the California legislature has agreed to fund and revise state law to authorize the upload of information about all driver’s licenses and ID cards issued by the state to the private SPEXS national ID database operated by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA).

The budget compromise between Gov. Newsom and the legislature announced last night includes “guardrails” intended to give an illusion of protection for license and ID data.

There’s no time before the hearing on the budget compromise scheduled for Monday morning in the Senate Budget Committee for legislators to assess whether those guardrails will be effective. But to anyone aware of the real threat, it’s apparent that they are a sham.

That was inevitable, as we’ve pointed out in our previous statements to the legislature.

Once this data is transferred to AAMVA, components of the DHS or other Federal or state law enforcement agencies will be able to obtain it from AAMVA by court order. Such a subpoena or warrant could, and probably would, include a gag order prohibiting AAMVA from disclosing it to the state of California or to the individuals whose data is disclosed.

Even after the fact, neither California nor individual Californians will know that this has happened or be able to challenge it.

That data could be misused in many ways, but it’s especially likely be weaponized against immigrant and transgende Californians who are already being targeted by Federal agencies and other states.

The summary of the proposed transportation budget trailer bill (AB 169) released last night says that it “Limits data sharing to only that required by federal law.” But that’s not true. “Compliance” with the REAL-ID by California or any other state is optional, not required. Neither the Federal REAL-ID Act nor any other Federal law requires, or could require, California or any other state to share any data with AAMVA, a private nonprofit corporation.

As we pointed out in our earlier testimony on the budget proposal, California has a choice. The state could and should say “No” to premature capitulation to DHS threats.

The Legislature should reject this “compromise” sell-out. Instead, the state, through its Attorney General, could and should prepare to defend Californians against any interference by the DHS or Transportation Security Administration (TSA) with our right to travel.

Jun 24 2026

Arizona governor vetoes bill to end REAL-ID compliance

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has vetoed a bill which would have ended the state’s compliance with the Federal REAL-ID Act.

Like many other states, Arizona gives applicants for driver’s licenses or non-driver IDs two options: a “travel ID” that is issued in accordance with procedures that satisfy the requirements of the REAL-ID Act, or a non-compliant “non-travel” license or ID that is valid for driving or other state purposes but isn’t valid for Federal purposes.

HB2957 would have required the Arizona Department of Transportation to continue to offer this option of driver’s license and IDs that don’t comply with the REAL-ID Act. HB2957 would have added the requirement that information about these noncompliant licenses and IDs and the Arizona residents who choose them not be shared with other states and not be “stored in any interstate, federal or international database system, including the state pointer exchange services” (SPEXS), the national ID database hosted by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA).

Since 2024, Arizona has been sharing the contents of its database of both “travel” and “non-travel” licenses and IDs with other states, and has uploaded excerpts from each license of either type — compliant or noncompliant — to the SPEXS national ID database.

The point of HB2957 is to end this practice. People who choose a non-compliant license or ID think they have opted out of the national data sharing and national ID database that is the goal of the REAL-ID Act. To make that opt out real, HB2957 would have required Arizona to discontinue uploads of data about noncompliant “non-travel” Arizona licenses and IDs to SPEXS.

But AAMVA requires a state that wants to participate in SPEXS to upload data about all licenses and IDS the state has issued, regardless of whether they are issued in accordance with REAL-ID Act procedures.

Even if AAMVA — a private nonprofit corporation not subject to any of the decision-making rules applicable to state or Federal government agencies — decided to change its rules, allowing state residents to opt out of national sharing of their license data would render all licenses issued by that state noncompliant with the REAL-ID Act.

The REAL-ID Act requires that, “To meet the requirements of this section, a State shall… Provide electronic access to all other States to information contained in the motor vehicle database of the State [and] maintain a State motor vehicle database that contains, at a minimum… all data fields printed on drivers’ licenses and identification cards issued by the State.”

If a state withholds data about some licenses and IDs from this data sharing, that state won’t be in compliance with the REAL-ID Act. And for a license or ID to be “compliant”, it must both be (1) issued in accordance with compliant [procedures and (2) issued by a compliant sate. If the state as a whole is noncompliant, none of the licenses or IDs it issues will be compliant, regardless of what issuance procedures are followed.

HB2957 was approved by both chambers of the Arizona legislature by substantial majorities, but not by the 2/3 vote required to override a veto.

Gov. Hobbs’ veto letter says only that the bill “fails to strengthen required federal identification-verification safeguards that keep our state safe.” There’s no indication of how Gov. Hobbs thinks a private national ID database keeps anyone safe.

Gov. Hobbs is a Democrat, and the majority of members of both chambers of the Arizona legislature are Republicans. This isn’t a partisan issue, though. Next door to Arizona, in California, a Democratic-majority legislature is fighting the Democratic governor to keep Californians’ data out of the SPEXS database.

HB2957 is likely to be reintroduced in the Arizona legislature next year.

Jun 15 2026

California legislature removes REAL-ID compliance from Governor’s budget

The California Senate and Assembly have removed funding and legislative changes to upload drivers license data to the private SPEXS national ID database from Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget.

This isn’t the final decision. The legislature has to pass its version of a budget by June 15th, but the final budget and associated legislative changes may not be enacted until sometime in August, after negotiations between the legislature and the Governor’s office. But as Khari Johnson and Wendy Fry explain in this article for CalMatters, even this brief postponement of approval will make it difficult of impossible for the California DMV to meet its self-imposed goal (not a legal deadline) of being ready for the upload by February 2027.

Some state legislators are still trying to find ways to put “guardrails” on California license and ID data that will protect it even after it is uploaded to the national database. But the more carefully they study the problem, the more they realize that nothing the state could do would prevent this data from being obtained by Federal or out-of-state law enforcement agencies, without the knowledge of the DMV or the Californians against whom it could be weaponized, once it is uploaded to AAMVA, an out-of-state nongovernmental entity.

This is too important a decision to bury in the budget as an afterthought.

There’s no rush. The DMV’s target date for the upload was set by AAMVA, for its convenience, not by Federal or state law. Removing this from the budget and abandoning postponing any approval until next year (if this ill-considered plan by the DMV and the Governor isn’t abandoned), will give time to consider the implications and the alternatives.

Instead of preemptively capitulating to legally dubious Federal threats to harass California air travelers if the state doesn’t comply with the REAL-ID Act, the Governor should call the Feds bluff, stand up to the DHS, task the state’s Attorney General with preparing to defend Californians against any interference with our right to travel.

May 26 2026

Reasons for California not to comply with the REAL-ID Act

The budget committees of the California legislature are continuing to consider a proposal from Governor Newsom and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to appropriate $55 million and, more importantly, change California law to permit the DMV to upload information about all licensed California drivers to the SPEXS national ID database.

We’re in Sacramento this week, along with a statewide coalition of immigrant, LGBTQ, and other human rights groups, talking to legislators about what’s wrong with this proposal:

(download this 1-page summary)

“State-to-State Verification System (S2S) Project” – OPPOSE

If California chooses to comply with the REAL-ID Act, the DMV will be required to make all data in DMV records about all California driver’s licenses available to all other states (and to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, AAMVA). The REAL-ID Act provides that, “To meet the requirements of this section, a State shall… Provide electronic access to all other States to information contained in the motor vehicle database of the State [and] maintain a State motor vehicle database that contains, at a minimum… all data fields printed on drivers’ licenses and identification cards issued by the State.”
DMV data will be available to other states through the S2S network. It will also be uploaded to the SPEXS national ID database at AAMVA’s central site.
Other states can make only limited queries through the S2S network. But AAMVA as the holder of the SPEXS database can query and retrieve data in bulk at its central site.
If the DMV doesn’t have a Social Security Number on file for a license, it will upload a record for that license to the SPEXS database with “99999” in the field for SSN.
AAMVA could search for and retrieve all records with “99999” in the field for SSN, or could be ordered to do so by a Federal or state warrant, subpoena, or other court order.
A demand to AAMVA for SPEXS data could and probably would include a gag order prohibiting AAMVA from telling the California DMV or the affected individuals that AAMVA had been required to retrieve and disclose their information.
No provision in a contract between the DMV and AAMVA could override a gag order. California might not know about or be able to challenge a court order to AAMVA.
Contractual “guardrails” would give only false and misleading reassurance, not real protection. The only way to prevent Federal agencies or other states from (secretly) obtaining data from AAMVA is for California not to upload that data to AAMVA.
AAMVA is a private Virginia corporation not subject to any of the public records, open meetings, or privacy laws that would apply to a Federal or state government agency.
AAMVA has no procedure for an individual to find out what information about them is in the SPEXS database or with whom AAMVA has shared any or all of that data.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has threatened to interfere with Californians’ right to travel if California doesn’t choose to comply with the REAL-ID Act. But the promises made to California drivers and the protection of Californians’ personal information should take precedence over the convenience of air travelers who don’t want to get a passport or passport card.
Instead of capitulating to unlawful or questionable DHS threats, California could and should challenge those threats, just as California has challenged other DHS threats.
The “deadline” cited by the DMV was set by AAMVA, not by any law or regulation. There is no need to rush a decision which, once made, would be irrevocable.

May 22 2026

Minnesota OK’s “open” meetings behind TSA checkpoint

The Minnesota Commissioner of Administration has issued a formal advisory opinion that it doesn’t violate the state’s open meeting law for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) to hold its meetings in location behind a TSA checkpoint and accessible only by showing REAL-ID or paying a $45 fee, as long as the MAC offers to pay (or reimburse) the fee for those seeking to attend MAC meetings.

The advisory opinion addressed only the following question:

Does the Metropolitan Airports Commission Board of Commissioners policy requiring attendees to pay for TSA ConfirmID or obtain a Real ID or passport to attend meetings violate Minnesota Statutes, section 13D.01 to hold open meetings?

The advisory opinion only addresses the requirement to pay the fee or show REAL-ID. This leaves unresolved an issue on which we requested an opinion, but which the Commissioner declined to address: Whether Minnesota’s open meeting law permits the MAC or another state body to hold meetings in a location to which access is under the control and subject to the standardless discretion of the TSA or another third party. The TSA claims the right to deny passage to anyone, regardless of whether they show REAL-ID, pay the illegal $45 fee, or respond to the TSA’s unlawful questioning.

May 21 2026

Immigrant and human rights groups call for California not to upload driver’s license data to national ID database

Before a hearing last week before the California Assembly Budget Subcommittee #4 on Transportation, a coalition of 170 immigrant and human rights groups and allied organizations submitted a joint letter opposing the plan to upload data about all holders of California driver’s licenses and state-issued IDs to the SPEXS national ID database.

The joint letter and testimony by some of the witnesses at the hearing called on legislators to reject the proposal by Governor Newsom and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to appropriate $55 million and amend California’s driver’s license privacy law to allow the upload, which would be prohibited by current state law.

Alliance San Diego and other groups have also launched a petition campaign for individuals to tell Governon Newsom, “Do Not Comply” with the REAL-ID Act.

In testimony and a Powerpoint presentation for the hearing, witnesses from the DMV led by Director Steve Gordon doubled down on claims also made by Governor Newsom’s office that are partly misleading and partly false.

The DMV witnesses stressed that other states accessing the SPEXS database at AAMVA’s central site through the S2S network will be able to send and receive answers to only a limited set of queries, and won’t be able to perform bulk searches such as for all the SPEXS records from California with “99999” in place of a Social Security number.

But the DMV avoided mentioning that AAMVA, as the owner of the SPEXS database, could perform this or any other sort of bulk search and retrieval of SPEXS data — or could be ordered to do so by Federal or state law enforcement agencies or courts.

The DMV also said in its Powerpoint and testimony that, “AAMVA must notify CA if non-participants [such as federal agencies] request data.” This isn’t true.

The contract with AAMVA signed by the DMV on March 30, 2026 provides that AAMVA will notfy the California DMV of such a demand “if legally permitted”. A legal order to AAMVA to search for, retrieve, and hand over some or all of the information in the SPEXS database could and probably would be accompanied by a gag order prohibiting AAMVA from disclosing the order to California authorities, the individuals whose data was retrieved and revealed, or anyone else.

As we’ve noted before, California authorities cannot truthfully promise that AAMVA will be allowed to notify them of a demand for SPEXS data, or that they will even have an opportunity to contest such a demand. Once this data is uploaded to AAMVA — a private out-of-state entity — this data will be out of the state’s control.

Some witnesses at the hearing called for “guardrails” to be included in the California law to protect sensitive data uploaded to SPEXS, such as the “9999” placeholder that flags records of drivers who were unable to provide the DMV with a Social Security number.

But in reality, no such guardrails are possible. Nothing in California law or a contract between AAMVA and the DMV could override AAMVA’s duty, as a private Virginia corporation, to comply with orders from Federal courts or courts in Virginia or other states.

“Guardrails” in the law authorizing the upload to SPEXS would be a sham: They would offer only a misleading and falsely reassuring illusion of protection for Californians’ privacy

Senate Budget Subcommittee Chair Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) acknowledged explicitly that whether to capitulate to Federal threats to harass Californians boarding airline flights, if the state doesn’t comply with the REAL-ID Act, presents a choice between “inconvenience” to air travelers and much more severe potential negative consequences for immigrants or others who might be targeted based on SPEXS data.

That should be any easy choice. Protection of vulnerable Californians, especially immigrants, against Federal weaponization of their personal information should take precedence over the convenience of air travelers. California should not comply with the REAL-ID Act. Instead, the state should stand up to lawless Federal threats and prepare to defend Californians against any interference with their right to travel.

The DMV witnesses at last week’s hearing weren’t asked, and didn’t explain, why they signed a contract with AAMVA to upload data to an out-of-state private entity in a manner prohibited by current California law, without waiting to see whether the legislature would amend the law to permit this upload.

The DMV also avoided mentioning that the February 2027 “deadline” for the upload of California data to SPEXS was set solely by AAMVA and isn’t based on any provision of Federal law or regulations. There’s no need for California to do anything this year, especially on a rushed schedule that buries this major policy change in the budget bill.

The Assembly Budget Subcommittee heard testimony but deferred any decision on the proposal The next hearing on this proposal come as soon as next Thursday, May 28, in Senate Budget Subcommittee 5 on Transportation.

Papers, Please!

The Identity Project