States sue Trump administration over bid to access 17 million CDL records

A coalition of 22 state attorneys general and the state of Pennsylvania filed two lawsuits Thursday seeking to block the Trump administration from obtaining a database containing the personal information of roughly 17 million commercial driver’s license holders nationwide. The lawsuits allege that the U. S. Department of Transportation, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Department of Homeland Security are unlawfully attempting to gain access to the Commercial Driver’s License Information System (CDLIS), a state-owned database that contains sensitive information including drivers’ names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and license records. According to the coalition, FMCSA demanded that the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), which operates CDLIS on behalf of the states, turn over records for every commercial driver in the system going back five years.