Last week, the Legislature voted to tighten drivers license requirements, baby-stepping toward ignoring the law passed last year barring compliance with the REAL ID standards. As of November 15, you'll have to prove you're a legal resident before you can get a license in Maine -- as if the lines at the DoT weren't long enough.

You'll also have to have your picture taken at the beginning of the application process, instead of after you actually qualify for the license and need your picture taken for it.

One of the bill's provisions I actually agree with is tying the expiration date of the drivers' license to the visa expiration date for temporary visitors: that's just common sense (assuming that DHS processes visa extensions in a timely fashion, which I have doubts about).

The law is set to expire as soon as the provisions of REAL ID it complies with are revoked. However, I don't think that's good enough. They should never have been passed in the first place. Seattle refused to participate in a previous abuse of "power" related to airport security (sorry, can't remember the details well enough to Google it) -- this is another place to Just Say No.