COLUMBIA, S.C. - It is too early for South Carolina to sue the federal government over new driver’s licenses that meet federal security requirements, state Attorney General Henry McMaster said Monday.
South Carolina should show the Department of Homeland Security what it already has done to make driver’s licenses more secure following the September 11 terror attacks, McMaster said in an opinion released Monday. That, McMaster argued, will show the federal agency that the state is meeting the standards of the new law, known as Real ID.
A lawsuit arguing that federal government has overstepped its authority “would be at this point, premature,” McMaster wrote.
South Carolina and five other states have passed laws barring compliance with the federal law out of privacy and cost concerns.
Gov. Mark Sanford has been considering whether to seek an extension to comply with the law. If Sanford doesn’t seek one by March 31, South Carolinians won’t be able to use state driver’s licenses for identification alone to board airplanes or enter federal buildings and may have to undergo extra security checks.
McMaster said there’s a gray area between the state and federal laws that has helped other states with bans, citing a Homeland Security decision Friday not to sanction Montana after that state told the federal agency all the steps it had taken to make its licenses more secure. The federal agency interpreted that as an extension request and said the state’s residents wouldn’t be sanctioned.
On Friday, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer told The Associated Press there had been no extension request.
The governor’s office was reviewing McMaster’s opinion and letters other states had sent Homeland Security, Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said Monday.
“We’re still evaluating all of our options, and haven’t made any determinations yet,” Sawyer said.
Legal action, while still possible, is made difficult by the most recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a similar challenge, McMaster said. In that 2000 case, South Carolina argued against complying with a federal law barring public access to personal driver’s license information.