The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted a preliminary injunction halting the Trump Administration's effort to obtain sensitive personal information of commercial drivers, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
In August, Attorney General Bonta joined a coalition of states in suing the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) after it threatened to withhold funding from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) unless the group provided commercial driver data including drivers' names, license numbers, and licensing states.
AAMVA operates the Commercial Driver's License Information System (CDLIS), a federally mandated system that states use to search for individuals applying for a commercial driver's license, which is required to operate large, heavy, or hazardous commercial vehicles. Historically, the federal government used the system to search for records on an individual basis. The FMCSA threatened to withhold AAMVA funding and terminate the cooperative agreement under which CDLIS operates unless it provided records for millions of people in the system.
The coalition challenged the demand as unconstitutional and exceeding the Trump Administration's authority, citing violations of the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act and the federal Privacy Act. A temporary restraining order was granted a week after the lawsuit was filed. The preliminary injunction now bars FMCSA from obtaining the data as litigation continues.