Attorney General James Halts Trump Administration’s Attempt to Seize Millions of Commercial Drivers’ Personal Information

NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James today released the following statement after securing a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from seizing millions of commercial drivers’ personal records or cutting off access to a critical database:

“The federal government cannot arbitrarily seize Americans’ private information. Today’s ruling puts a stop to this unlawful demand and protects millions of commercial drivers from this invasion of privacy. My office will continue to fight every attempt to weaponize federal funding against New York and its residents.”

Attorney General James and 21 other attorneys general, as well as the state of Pennsylvania, sued on August 13 to stop the federal government from seizing the names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers of 17 million commercial drivers nationwide, including nearly 500,000 New Yorkers. Today, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted the coalition’s motion for a temporary restraining order preventing the administration from seizing the data for now.