Live Free or Die is the motto of the Granite State. Every so often, the citizens of New Hampshire show why they have earned the right to display such a brash, in-your-face saying on their license plates. Now is one of those times.

The free and independent state of New Hampshire (That is the descriptive phrase the Declaration of Independence uses, isn't it?) will exercise its freedom from federal interference and independence from national trends by rejecting federal requirements on state-issued driver's licenses. The issue at hand is the Real ID Act, which in the name of inconveniencing illegal aliens inconveniences citizens. The state's lower body, and committee of the senate, have rejected the Real ID Act, and the governor is on record as saying that he will sign the bill if it crosses his desk.

Compliance with the law means states placing your social security number on your license, eliminating Massachusetts' sensible "lifetime licenses," sharing individual driver information with the states and the federal government, and burdening states with expensive mandates, such as unfunded computer databases. New Hampshire correctly views this as a National ID Card by another name. The state's legislature, and its governor, seem poised to defy the law. Failure to comply means, among other things, that federal airport screeners will no longer accept licenses from non-compliant states as identification. A citizen from a non-complying state will have to bring federal identification, such as a passport, to board a plane. It's an inconvenience, but one that the people won't stand for long (just as their elected officials won't stand for the provisions of Real ID). To buck the law is to challenge it, something that the federal government wasn't counting on. One tiny David may inspire many Davids to take on Goliath. If that happens, it will be Goliath, and not the Davids, who backs down.

The federal government refuses to secure our borders. Now they want to force the states to do this for them. Only the Real ID Act won't do this. In the name of making life harder for illegal aliens, the federal government makes life harder for citizens. The Real ID Act is phony immigration reform, and real Big Brotherism.

But little New Hampshire is standing up to Big Brother the bully. The citizens of New Hampshire choose to live free. The consequence won't be death. Just a greater hassle at airports, and other places, which are numerous, that the federal government has taken over.

I might be ok with it if it didn't require the SS#.

It doesn't seem to me to be a mark of a free person to have to carry "papers" around with them. And this is clearly where this is headed. Drivers lisences are already too much like this already.

To be clear, there are two options with regards to id numbers on Mass. licenses: SS# or a randomized id# that only means something to state officials. I opt for the latter as the less exposure to my SS# the world has, the more comfortable I am.