Governor Josh Shapiro has joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit 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.
The lawsuit claims the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security 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”, according to a press release.
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.
The plaintiffs argue that losing federal grants would essentially shutter the database, halting the processing of any new commercial driver’s licenses and impacting local economies. Complying with the government’s demand would “create a brand-new database controlled by the federal government” that states “would have no access to, or control over … and so would lose the ability to superintend, secure and verify their records.”
“That disclosure would breach the confidentiality of millions of individuals by divulging personal information that Plaintiff States promised to keep private, subject to narrow exceptions, damaging public trust in the States and foreseeably deterring many people from applying for CDLs, which would deprive the States of revenue and potentially cause some to attempt to drive without valid licenses,” the lawsuit says.
You can read the lawsuit in full below:
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