ID Law Stirs Passionate Protest in N.H. By David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post Staff Writer

The controversy in New Hampshire surrounds a federal law called the Real ID Act, which was approved last year after it was tacked on to a bill funding the war in Iraq and relief for tsunami victims. Its principal backer, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), said he wanted to close the kinds of loopholes that allowed some of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers to obtain official identification.

The bill requires states to check whether driver’s license applicants are in the country legally, and to require documents showing their birth date, Social Security number and home address. The act also requires that states find a way to verify that the documents are valid.

The deadline is May 2008. If states cannot meet the new requirements by then, the bill says, their licenses may not be accepted as identification at airport security screenings, federal buildings and nuclear plants. …

“We care more for our liberties than to meekly hand over to the federal government the potential to enumerate, track, identify and eventually control,” [Rep. Neal M. Kurk (R)] said, before quoting Henry and his state’s defiant motto, “Live Free or Die.”…

Emboldened by that success, groups opposed to Real ID staged a rally in late April in front of the statehouse where, according to a report in the Concord Monitor, some wore “666” on their foreheads — indicating their belief that a national system of rules for driver’s licenses is a step toward the “mark of the beast” prophesied in the Book of Revelation.