It looks like the days of some folks being required to show a passport for domestic travel have been postponed. Wired’s Threat Level blog comments on DHS caving on South Carolina’s rebellion:
Despite blasting a defiant last day letter to the Homeland Security Department over pending federal rules Monday, South Carolina Republican governor Mark Sandford secured South Carolinians the right to use their driver’s licenses to board planes without being patted down, at least until 2010.[...]
It’s clear the rebel states won, according to Bill Scannell, a spokesman for the Identity Project which has been fighting against Real ID.
“Montana’s letter smirked,” Scannell said. “New Hampshire’s was down right disrespectful and you could see the scotch tape from where they cut-and-pasted pages from their DMV handbook.”
“But Sanford’s five-page letter was Fort Sumter-quality,” Scannell said, referring to the South Carolina military installation where the Civil War started.
That leaves Maine as the only rogue left rogue, though the state is likely to get its own extension late Monday.
A little while after this Threat Level post was made, the AP noted that Maine had been granted an extension to Wednesday to permit them to finish drafting a response, with approval expected later this week.
So, no internal passports required until at least 2010. A new administration will be in power, so from DHS’s POV, the matter is now for all practical purposes Someone Else’s Problem.