ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL SUES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FOR UNLAWFULLY DEMANDING PERSONAL INFORMATION OF CDL DRIVERS

ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL SUES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FOR UNLAWFULLY DEMANDING PERSONAL INFORMATION OF CDL DRIVERS

August 13, 2026

Administration Threatens to Withhold $10 Million in Federal Funding Unless Sensitive Information of Millions of Drivers Turned Over

Chicago - Attorney General Kwame Raoul led 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 to produce the database.

Raoul and the coalition filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which is an administration of the DOT, 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.

"Yet again, the Trump administration has threatened to hold federal funding hostage in order to obtain personally identifiable information of millions of Americans for improper purposes," Raoul said. "This database was created 40 years ago so states could share information with each other to stop unsafe drivers from operating commercial vehicles, and the federal government's decision to ransack that database puts the whole system in jeopardy. I will continue to push back on the unnecessary and unlawful attempts of the Trump administration to misuse Americans' most personal information."

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.

"The Trump administration is demanding an unprecedented amount of state-owned, sensitive personal information from millions of law-abiding drivers without providing adequate legal justification or meaningful assurances about how that data will be used, protected or shared for non public safety-related purposes," said Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who applauded Attorney General Raoul for leading the multi-state legal challenge. "Illinoisans should not be forced to surrender their personal information without clear legal authority, strict privacy protections and firm limits on its use unrelated to public safety. We have a duty to protect their privacy, prevent the misuse of their data and ensure both state and federal law are followed."

To approve a CDL application, Raoul and the attorneys general explain in the lawsuits, 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 personal 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. Faced with that threat, which could shut down CDLIS altogether, AAMVA told the states it would comply with the federal government's demand, requiring Raoul and the coalition to seek an emergency order to prevent the data from being turned over.

Raoul and his fellow state attorneys general have brought several legal challenges against the Trump administration's attempts to unlawfully obtain and use Americans' personal data for improper purposes, including immigration enforcement. The state attorneys general have succeeded in litigation preventing the Trump administration from taking possession of and exercising unfettered access to personal identifying information for residents identified in Medicaid, SNAP, TANF and state voter rolls. Relatedly, the Department of Homeland Security sent an administrative subpoena to AAMVA demanding the same data set.

Attorney General Raoul led the filing of these lawsuits with Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb. Also joining these lawsuits are attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the state of Pennsylvania. Additionally, the attorney general of Minnesota joined the DHS case.