This isn’t a REAL ID matter. REAL ID is orthogonal.

NYS is refusing access to their “normal” non-REAL ID databases, and it bothers someone in the executive branch.

Notably, for Global Entry, you already need a passport - which supersedes the ID value of your state DL in every imaginable way

No NYS applicant is asking the federal government to rely on a drivers license. The government has just chosen to tie other things to the drivers license to further their own private tantrums

I remember real ID being called controversial in 2005. I wonder if that might have something to do with the fact that it took them ~15 years before somebody said "yes, we're really doing it this year".

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_ID_Act#Controversy_and_op...

REAL ID is the exact kind of thing Americans used to mock in the Soviet Union.

“Papers, please”

What turned the tide on states' acceptance of RealID?

Most likely, the Federal government sticking to its deadline on barring acceptance of non-REAL licenses for air travel ...