By Hank Russell
A federal judge recently issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Trump administration, which sought to obtain the personal data of 17 million commercial drivers nationwide. That includes 500,000 drivers in New York State. New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, called it a victory for personal rights.
On August 20, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Anthony Trenga for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, granted the TRO to a group of 21 state attorneys general, the District of Columbia AG and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. This means the federal government cannot collect the drivers’ data for now. The Trump administration sought the names, birthdates and Social Security numbers of these drivers. They also threatened to withhold federal funding if the states did not comply.
“The federal government cannot arbitrarily seize Americans’ private information,” James said. “[The August 20] 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.”
The coalition of AGs and the state of Pennsylvania filed the lawsuit on August 13. It named U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Derek D. Barr and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.
Long Island Life & Politics reached out to the Transportation Department. The agency sent this reporter a press release commenting on the lawsuit. According to the department, the lawsuit was filed the day after the one-year anniversary following the August 12, 2025, Florida Turnpike crash. According to Local Crash Reports, 28-year-old Harjinder Singh was driving down the Florida Turnpike in Fort PIerce when he attempted to make an illegal U-turn, crossing into the path of a minivan that became stuck underneath Singh’s truck. The two passengers in the minivan were killed instantly and the driver was transported to a local hospital, where he later died.
Singh, who entered the country illegally in 2018, was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide and later held on a detainer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He obtained his commercial driver’s license in California.
“Every administration since 1988 has had access to this basic database, so let’s be clear on what this ridiculous lawsuit is really all about. These radical state AGs want to make it harder for my department to enforce the rules of the road and easier for dangerous illegal immigrant truck drivers to operate a big rig,” Duffy said. “They may not care about keeping you and your family safe, but President Trump and I do. We will fight this lawsuit tooth and nail to prevent more senseless crashes by unqualified drivers.”
Appearing on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, Duffy said, “Not only do they not speak English, they went to a sham driving school. Many of them don’t have the skills or the knowledge to operate an 80,000-pound big rig on American roads. We are entitled to get all of the DMV [Department of Motor Vehicles] data from the rest of the states.”
Duffy said he is being sued “because they know we’re going to take illegals off American roads. You have these liberal states deciding an illegal truck driver over the safety of the American citizen. It shows you how perverse these radical leftists have become.”