Georgia Woman told to GET A DIVORCE (can't renew her driver's license)

[pbartch]

"Get a Divorce!"
New National I.D. Legislation Causes Uproar
Patriot Act Bars US Woman From Driver's License


By Margaret Thomas
Posted February 11, 2005

January 13, 2005
The Driver's License Bureau told me today that they had merged with the Social Security Department this December, and that's why I can't get a driver's license. Social Security is federal and the Driver's License Bureau is state. How can they MERGE? Why wasn't this in the paper? I guess the "National ID Card" is here. I'm not an illegal alien or a terrorist, I was born right here in Georgia, and I've had a driver's license for 26 years without EVER getting a ticket.

Evidently, the new Patriot Act law takes away a woman's right to drive
unless she signs everything she owns over to her husband's name. I
renewed my license last month, and received a letter last week saying my license was being canceled. I went in today with all my papers to see why, and they said that my maiden name is on my Social Security Card, (Margaret Thomas), and last time I got my license they put my maiden and married name on my license (Margaret Thomas Funk), so my names don't match.

I can't get a Driver's License in either name! I can't get it in my maiden name, because it doesn't match my old driver's license. I can't get it in my married name because it doesn't match my Social Security Card.

I said "Well, what can I do to get a license?"
He said "You can get a divorce. Bring your divorce papers in and we'll change it." (Chief Cox of Norcross, GA. said this, in front of witnesses.) ...

What are they going to take away next, our right to vote without our
husband's permission? I called Rep. John Linder, and he said they had had quite a few calls from women about this. He said it's appearing to be a common problem, but it's a federal law and they don't know what they can do about it. As a matter of fact, I heard another woman arguing about the same thing while I was at the DMV today.... It's affecting every woman who wanted to keep her own identity. I guess we'd better start shopping for burkas. The Taliban wouldn't let women drive, either.


The Atlanta Journal is possibly doing a story on this. The reporter was interested, and I've called and written my state representatives and the ACLU. (Maybe they'll do something good for a change!) If many women affected by this, as I suspect, maybe we can start a class action suit.

<snip>

I went to my state legislator's office to discuss this "connection" between the Social Secuity Number and the Driver's License, and was told that it is now being done in the name of the "War on Terrorism," and that government needed to identify everyone in the country by a Social Security Number. I probed a little more on this, and was immediately thrown out of the office. Bottom line, there is now created a new "crime," that of driving without a Social Security Number.

<snip>

http://www.mediabypass.com/article.asp?id=2005020003