A federal judge shut down the Transportation Department’s attempt to get 17 million state records about people who hold commercial driver’s licenses, saying the request violated privacy law.
The administration had sought the records to use for immigration enforcement, likely as part of a crackdown on illegal immigrants dangerously driving big rigs.
Judge Anthony Trenga, a George W. Bush pick who sits in Virginia, said states had promised their residents the information would remain private and the federal demand undermined those commitments.
He said the database that maintains the records is run by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, at the behest of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
But the AAMVA is a nongovernmental organization, and the Transportation Department has long made clear the driver’s records belong to the states, not the feds, Judge Trenga said.
“Given the federal defendants’ lack of control of ownership over the requested data, the federal defendants cannot, in effect, unilaterally replace the AAMCA with the FMCSA as the depository for [the commercial license information],” he wrote.
He said the federal government’s new demand for records should have been run by the states first. The department had threatened to cut off the association’s federal funding, including $10 million to run the commercial license database.
Judge Trenga issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the transfer of information to the feds and forbidding the Transportation Department from punishing the AAMVA.
The department began seeking the records from AAMVA earlier this summer.
When the association didn’t immediately comply, Homeland Security issued a subpoena.
AAMVA then indicated it would comply and DHS withdrew the subpoena, but a number of states objected to sharing the information, saying it would be a breach of their contract with the association.
The Transportation Department then issued an ultimatum setting an Aug. 17 deadline.
Judge Trenga earlier put that deadline on hold and now has erased it.
“Today’s ruling marks another important step in making sure Americans’ privacy rights remain protected and resolute. When the president forgets the rules of the road, we’ll be there to remind him,” said Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, who was among the Democratic attorneys general who battled against disclosure.
The Trump administration has complained about foreign nationals with less-than-full legal status winning commercial driver’s licenses from states.
The feds say those “non-domiciled” drivers can lack the English skills necessary to operate a truck on American roads safely.
A series of fatal accidents involving nondomiciled commercial drivers elevated the issue.
