Federalizing Drivers’ Licenses

Like Glenn Reynolds, I agree that while the federal government has an interest in seeing the standards for issuing drivers licenses strengthened, it’s probably unconstitutional to go about telling the states how to do that, and another sign of “fair weather federalism.” Now, if you had a national ID requirement – a debate for another day, but bear with me – it would hardly be unreasonable to allow state-issued drivers licenses to substitute if they met certain security criteria. That would place a certain amount of pressure on states to comply, but it wouldn’t be the sort of direct interference at issue here.