The Senate Judiciary Committee made a wise move Monday to table a bill attempting to nullify the federal Real ID Act while moving another, more reasonable bill to the Senate floor on a 12-0 vote.

The nullification measure relied on some less-than-iron clad legal precedents said to give states the right to reject federal laws that improperly wrest authority from the states. But that's a shaky proposition: generally speaking, states (as opposed to the courts) simply have no authority to overturn laws passed by Congress.

The other bill is more reasonable, and still adamantly rejects the Real ID Act by flat-out refusing to implement the measure.

The rejection has wide bipartisan support because the Real ID Act has something to offend just about everybody. On the one hand, by requiring states to adopt identical drivers' licenses and verify the documentation necessary for people to obtain them -- and by not footing any of the bill -- the Department of Homeland Security would in effect "commandeer" control of state drivers licensing bureaus and cost states more than $11 billion over the first five years.

On the other hand, the Real ID Act would significantly undermine the individual privacy guaranteed by the Montana Constitution, and could even put people's identity at risk. Storing all that private information in databases that can be shared with other states and the federal government is an open invitation for it to be stolen, sold or accidentally revealed.

The hope is that if enough states rebel, Congress will repeal the act as the bad idea it always was.