Nearly 500 thousand drivers of the New York State are at the centre of a lawsuit that concerns access by the federal government to their personal data. On Thursday, August 13th, the Attorney General of the State, Letitia James, together with 21 other general attorneys and Pennsylvania, sued the federal departments of Transport and Homeland Security to prevent them from obtaining names, dates of birth and Social Security Number contained in the national system of commercial licenses.
The request totals about 17 million people in the United States. They are the owners of a Commercial Driver’s License, the license needed to professionally drive many trucks, buses and other heavy vehicles. In New York, it’s almost half a million.
The data is stored in the Commercial Driver’s License Information System, an archive used by states to check that those who require or have a commercial license have the necessary requirements. New York, according to Gothamist, consults the system about 30 thousand times a day.
The clash concerns those who can access that information and for what purposes. The federal government claims that broader access is necessary to verify the suitability of drivers and apply the rules on commercial licenses. In recent months the Department of Transportation has strengthened the requirements for so-called non-domiciled CDL, licenses that can be issued under certain circumstances to people who do not have home in the United States.
According to the complaint submitted by the States, however, information could also be shared with the Department of Homeland Security and used for immigration activities. It is one of the reasons why New York claims that the federal request goes beyond the uses for which the database was created.
The dispute also has a more immediate consequence. Washington has set to date, August 17, the deadline by which states should allow access to data and has threatened to stop federal funding for the system in case of non-cooperation.
According to New York, losing those funds could compromise the operation of the database and therefore also the release and renewal of commercial licenses. The consequences would not only concern transporters: CDLs are also used by bus drivers, school buses and other means that are part of the daily transport network.
The case was filed at the Federal District Court in Washington. Member States shall request the court to block the request for data and to prevent the suspension of funding while the case is examined.
L’articolo New York does not want to give the federal government the data of 500 thousand drivers proviene da IlNewyorkese.
