Overview
- A coalition of 21 states plus the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania filed two federal suits to stop the transfer of Commercial Driver’s License Information System records, with filings announced Thursday and the cases lodged in the Eastern District of Virginia.
- Plaintiffs say federal agencies exceeded their authority by demanding bulk CDLIS files and by threatening to cut AAMVA grants and contracts if the nonprofit did not hand over the data by an Aug. 17 deadline.
- AAMVA told member states it received a DHS subpoena and later said it could not meet the administration’s production deadline and has not produced the full dataset.
- The states argue the demand violates the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act while federal officials say the data is needed to detect fraud, remove unsafe drivers and protect highway safety.
- Reports disagree on the scope of the request — most sources cite roughly 17 million records covering five years while at least one report states 117 million — raising uncertainty about privacy risk and possible disruption to licensing and workforce supply, including school-bus and commercial drivers.