by TChris

Americans have long opposed the concept of a national identity card. Privacy advocates are concerned that new federal standards for drivers licenses will create a de facto national ID card, "centralizing information that can be misused - by letting the government track the whereabouts of innocent people, for instance."

The biggest danger is that, as the nation becomes more security-minded, and relies more on driver's licenses as ID, our society changes, [Marv] Johnson said. "You just wind up being a nation where you have to show your papers to go anyplace. That's something the American people have never put up with."

States and the federal government will be wrestling with the content and design of the license for at least a year-and-a-half before the requirements take effect. States can opt out of the federal requirements, but the state issued licenses would then be useless as identification for any federal purpose, including boarding an airplane.