Attorney General Jennifer Davenport joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general and the state of Pennsylvania today in filing two lawsuits against the Trump Administration for demanding production of a database of state-owned records containing the sensitive personal information of 17 million drivers and threatening to terminate more than $10 million in federal funding to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) if it refuses.
Attorney General Davenport and the coalition filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and AAMVA, as well as an additional related lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The lawsuits claim the DOT, FMCSA, and DHS are violating multiple federal privacy laws by secretly setting up their own database with records extorted from AAMVA, with no guardrails on the use or sharing of drivers’ Social Security numbers and other personal information, and no notice to the public. The lawsuits also allege that the demand violates the Administrative Procedure Act because the federal government has no legitimate need to take over this database of state records, and it failed to consult the states before making this drastic change.
The lawsuit alleges that DOT, FMCSA, and DHS are violating multiple federal privacy laws by attempting to secretly set up their own database with records unlawfully obtained from AAMVA. This misuse of sensitive information would have no guardrails on the use or sharing of drivers’ Social Security numbers and other personal information, and no notice to the public. The lawsuit also alleges that the demand violates the Administrative Procedure Act because the federal government has no legitimate need to take over this database of state records, and it failed to consult the states before making this drastic change.
“New Jersey has one of the strongest data privacy laws in the country, and we will not allow the Trump Administration to illegally misuse the private information of our residents,” said Attorney General Davenport. “We will not allow New Jerseyans’ safety or the employment of our CDL drivers to be jeopardized by yet another unlawful request for private data.”
In 1986, Congress established the Commercial Driver’s License Information System (CDLIS) to provide states an efficient means of sharing information about commercial driver’s license (CDL) applicants and determining if the applicant is licensed in another state. Since 1988, the DOT has contracted with AAMVA, a private nonprofit organization, to operate CDLIS for the benefit of the states.
To approve a CDL application, states validate the driver’s identity, medical fitness, immigration status, and each applicant’s licensing and driving history in any state where the driver could have been licensed. This important public safety work is the responsibility of the states, not the federal government. Once a license is issued, states maintain a record in CDLIS of each driver that includes personally identifiable information such as the driver’s name, date of birth, Social Security number, driver’s license number, and the name of state that provided the record.
Despite the states owning the data stored in CDLIS, FMCSA sent a letter to AAMVA, making the unprecedented demand that AAMVA turn over data for every driver in CDLIS going back five years. When AAMVA voiced its concerns about the new directive, FMCSA made an explicit threat to terminate all of AAMVA’s federal grants and contracts. Shortly after, DHS issued an administrative subpoena to AAMVA demanding the same information. Faced with that threat, which could shut down CDLIS altogether, Attorney General Davenport and the coalition have been compelled to seek an emergency order to prevent the data from being turned over.
This is not the first time the Attorney General has joined multistate coalitions to challenge the Trump Administration’s attempts to unlawfully use Americans’ personal data for undisclosed purposes, including immigration enforcement. Other cases have challenged the administration’s unlawful demands for the personal and sensitive information of millions of people receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits, or those receiving Medicaid benefits.
Joining Attorney General Davenport in filing these lawsuits are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the state of Pennsylvania.
