The Trump administration’s controversial efforts to collect and merge the personal data of millions of Americans are now facing a significant legal challenge. A class-action lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday aims to block these actions, claiming they violate federal privacy laws and the U.S. Constitution, while also posing risks to sensitive data security and potentially disenfranchising eligible voters.
The lawsuit, brought forth by the League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and five unnamed U.S. citizens, addresses the aggregation of personal information by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Government Efficiency. It argues that the current administration is rapidly creating “national data banks” that have long been resisted by both the American public and Congress, and which the Privacy Act was specifically designed to prevent.
“This country was founded on the principle that government has no business arbitrarily intruding in our private affairs,” said John Davisson, director of litigation for EPIC. “Yet this administration is trampling on our privacy at the grandest scale, illegally hoarding our sensitive personal information and threatening our most cherished rights.”
The suit highlights the DHS’s recent modifications to a system known as SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements), which was originally intended to verify the eligibility of foreign-born individuals for government benefits. The lawsuit claims that the Trump administration has repurposed this system into a citizenship verification tool that now allows state and federal agencies to query using Social Security numbers, thereby producing data on U.S.-born citizens as well.
According to the lawsuit, these changes were made without the necessary public notification or input from Congress, violating federal privacy regulations. The plaintiffs argue that the federal government failed to assess the privacy implications or potential for errors in the repurposing of this data.
NPR previously reported that several Republican-led states have begun running their entire voter rolls through the modified SAVE system to identify noncitizens, with over 33 million voters already screened. The lawsuit contends that this could lead to U.S. citizens being misidentified as noncitizens, risking their right to vote and exposing them to wrongful criminal investigations.
Moreover, the lawsuit alleges that the federal government has unlawfully pooled sensitive records into what is referred to as a “data lake,” managed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This data lake includes a vast array of personal information, such as Social Security numbers, biometric data, tax information, wage records, and medical records, which the plaintiffs argue presents a significant security threat, making it a “bullseye for hackers.”
Recent reports have revealed troubling data security practices within the DHS, including an incident where a member of the agency reportedly created a live copy of Social Security records for over 300 million Americans, which was stored in a private cloud and made accessible to other employees, thereby increasing the risk of identity theft.
The lawsuit seeks to compel a judge to halt the use of these new data aggregation tools by the federal government. Defendants named in the case include the DHS, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Justice, along with their respective agency heads. The Justice Department has not yet commented on the lawsuit.
As this legal battle unfolds, it raises critical questions about privacy rights, government overreach, and the implications of data aggregation on the democratic process. Advocates for privacy and civil rights worry that unchecked data collection could jeopardize the integrity of elections and infringe upon the personal liberties of citizens.
