I am still lost----have all the citations I have issued for driving without a DL been unconstitutional?
Is this a state's rights federalism issue?
Yes, and Yes, however it is a bit more complicated that that, perhaps this will help clarify (or cloud further) the issue;
The most common argument that drivers licenses violate a specific constitutional provision come from the "Priviliges and Immunities" clause of the 14th Amendment {"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States"}.
However, in the "Slaughterhouse Cases", 83 U.S. 36 (1873), the Court held that this only applies to the rights of national citizenship, (i.e. rights explicitly guaranteed in the Constitution) or, as Justice Stevens said in Saenz v. Roe, 526 U.S. 489 (1999), rights that are "firmly embedded in our jurisprudence", meaning rights that have long been established.
Another argument against drivers licenses come from another part of the 14th Amendment, the part which says {"nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws"}.
However, as long as there is a due process of State law to require drivers licenses, and as long as the laws apply equally to everyone, drivers licenses withstand this challenge, to a degree. On the first count, the fact that a state legislature has approved the law requiring a drivers license satisfies the due process requirement.
On the second count, there might be an argument to be made that we restrict licenses to people of a certain age (somewhere between 14-16 years old), and thus violate the equal protection clause. However, this type of challenge has been consistently rejected (such as laws regulating minimum drinking age), and represents a policy decision on behalf of state legislatures,
rather than a constitutionally sound principle.
Where this all ties together is that firearms rights could, and in some instances are, being regulated in the same manner. That, and the fact that not many would be predisposed to take a citation for no DL to the SCOTUS.
However you slice it, the
right to travel freely, by whatever means, is a
right none the less, the only "privilege" that one gets is the chance to participate financially, in a self-fulfilling prophecy.