New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday that she is suing the Trump administration to stop federal agencies from seizing millions of confidential state driving records, warning that the government is trying to force states to choose between protecting Americans' privacy and public safety. The action targets a federal push to pull sensitive data on commercial drivers from a decades-old interstate database, with a compliance deadline of just four days away.
James made the announcement in a post on X on Thursday, writing that she is suing to stop the Trump administration from seizing millions of confidential state driving records without lawful justification, according to NY AG James. The post came the same day she co-led a coalition of 22 state attorneys general in filing two federal lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, according to the New York Attorney General's office. James joined attorneys general from states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Massachusetts in the dual filings.
17 Million Drivers' Records at Stake
At the center of the dispute is the Commercial Driver's License Information System, a database that federal agencies want state-owned access to for roughly 17 million commercial drivers nationwide, including nearly 500,000 New York commercial driver's license holders, per the Massachusetts Attorney General's office. The requested records reportedly contain sensitive personal identifiers, including driver names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers.
Federal agencies have set an August 17, 2026 deadline for the release of the CDL driver database, and threatened to cut off more than $10 million in federal funding to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators if the nonprofit fails to comply, the Delaware Department of Justice reported. The organization manages the database on behalf of state motor vehicle departments, and that funding threat gives federal officials significant leverage just days before the deadline.
States Allege Illegal Data Grab
The multistate lawsuits allege that federal agencies violated the Administrative Procedure Act and multiple federal privacy statutes by attempting to quietly establish a centralized federal database using state records without statutory authority or public notice, according to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. The coalition contends that federal agencies bypassed required state consultation processes and lack authority to store bulk Social Security numbers.
Congress established the Commercial Driver's License Information System in 1986 under the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act to allow states to share licensing histories and ensure commercial drivers do not hold licenses in multiple states, as reported by WRNJ Radio. For nearly four decades, states have owned and maintained the system as a safety clearinghouse rather than a federal repository. In March 2026, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy cited a lack of state insight into foreign driving records as justification for heightened federal scrutiny over commercial driver credentials issued across the country, per WXXI News.
Part of a Broader Federal-State Fight
This is not the first clash between New York and federal authorities over motor vehicle records. A federal judge in December 2025 upheld New York's 2019 Green Light Law, rejecting a Trump administration legal challenge that sought to grant federal agencies unfettered access to state DMV records, according to the Associated Press. That law allows undocumented immigrants to obtain standard driver's licenses while requiring federal agencies to obtain a court order or warrant before accessing DMV records.
Before that ruling, the U.S. Department of Justice had filed its own federal lawsuit against New York state officials in February 2025, arguing that a state provision requiring DMV officials to notify license holders when immigration authorities request their data violates the Supremacy Clause, according to Courthouse News Service. That case targeted New York's tip-off notification rule under the Intergovernmental Immunity Doctrine.
The commercial driver database fight also lands amid a wider pattern of legal battles James has waged against federal data demands. On August 3, James sued the Trump administration in a separate action to block a federal mandate requiring states to share private personal data from low-income families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits, per LegiStorm. That suit alleged federal agencies attempted to circumvent privacy rules protecting social service recipients. Hoodline previously reported on James' fight over FEMA funding tied to public safety grants, as well as her win protecting $10 billion in childcare funding from a federal freeze earlier this year.
New York's Own Limits on Federal Cooperation
New York enacted the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act in May 2026, which prohibits local police departments from participating in federal immigration enforcement and mandates the termination of all local 287(g) agreements with ICE by August 25, 2026, according to federal litigation records. James and Governor Hochul formally notified 12 local agencies in mid-2026 to end their active ICE agreements under that law.
The commercial driver's license fight is also unfolding against a national backdrop of federal enforcement actions targeting trucking credentials. Hoodline reported that Indiana halted non-domiciled trucker licenses tied to New York and California, and that federal agents recently swept up Ohio truckers, pulling 766 vehicles off the road in a related enforcement blitz.
It remains an open question whether federal courts will grant emergency injunctive relief before the August 17 deadline, or how judges will weigh federal administrative oversight against long-standing state data privacy protections. For now, New York and the other states in the coalition are asking the courts to block the transfer of driver records before the deadline arrives.
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