In September 1997, public access to driver's license and vehicle registration information nationwide will be severely restricted under a 1994 federal law. The Driver's Privacy Protection Act will supersede state freedom of information laws, state common law and state constitutions that have deemed such information open records. States will be permitted to keep Department of Motor Vehicle records open only if their legislatures vote to do so and if they allow drivers the option of keeping "personal" information secret.

   This paper, however, addresses whether the federal government has the constitutional authority to close records created, maintained and deemed open by states. Specifically, the paper examines the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994 in three constitutional areas:

• First Amendment right of access to governmental information;
• First Amendment doctrine that the press can't be singled out for denial of access to governmental information;
• Tenth Amendment power of the states, not Congress, to regulate state records, and Tenth Amendment prohibition against the federal government forcing states to enforce a federal regulatory scheme.

   The paper finds that the Act violates a public and press qualified First Amendment right of access to governmental records, a First Amendment doctrine that the press, or members of the press, cannot be subjected to special, discriminatory treatment, and the 10th Amendment as an impermissible coercion of state governments into a federal regulatory program and as an impermissible usurpation of the states' right to regulate driver's licenses.