from Hacker News

Real ID now required in US after nearly 20 years of delays

by isaacfrond on 5/7/25, 1:24 PM with 13 comments

• by diggernet on 5/7/25, 2:21 PM

  Friendly reminder that despite articles constantly saying "Real ID is required" as if no other option exists, the Real ID requirement only applies to using a driver's license or state issued photo ID. There is a long list of other acceptable forms of ID[1].

  In particular, a passport remains the ultimate form of ID, usable for anything.

  [1] https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/identification

• by AStonesThrow on 5/7/25, 3:38 PM

  So this is rather meta but I'm unsure how to address this sort of systemic issue.

  There is currently another topic under discussion that is very local to Arizona, involving a court case there, yet the conversation has coalesced around a thread from theguardian.com, which is a UK news outlet.

  Why are we letting foreign entities tell us what our local news is? This here article is ostensibly about travel within the U.S., from one state to another, because that's the major change with Real ID, yet again we're looking at a foreign entity's news article about it.

  Why can't we use news articles that are most germane to the topic under discussion? The "AZ Road Rage" topic had someone posting a perfectly good link to ABC 15 News, which should be a local authority on the topic; I don't see why we needed to pivot outside the U.S. to The Guardian at all.

• by Molitor5901 on 5/7/25, 2:51 PM

  So is this a step towards everyone having an ID? I asked at my DMV when I was getting my Real ID what would happen if I could not afford it. There is an indigent program that pays for it. So at least in my state - everyone gets an ID.

• by chrismcb on 5/8/25, 7:14 AM

  The real question should be, why does one need an id to travel domestically?

• by andrewmcwatters on 5/7/25, 2:45 PM

  I know this is an uninteresting aside, but the name "Real ID" is odd, because you'd think there was some sort of obvious meaning behind "real" like maybe it's an acronym associated with the "REAL" in REAL ID Act of 2005, but nope.

  It just makes it sound like all of the government and international identification us citizens carry isn't real enough. What a dumb name.

• by beardyw on 5/7/25, 2:31 PM

  Presumably the first step towards mandatory id cards you need to carry at all times.

• by superkuh on 5/7/25, 1:37 PM

  I guess I can no longer fly in commercial aircraft (unless I want to gamble and try the "have airport security call up Homeland Security in DC and have them grill me about my life" trick). Yikes. It's sad to see the states loose this battle against an ever increasingly authoritarian federal government. People said realid would be no problem because the federal government is reliable. Welp.