A coalition of 20 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on July 1, challenging its decision to hand over the personal data of some Medicaid enrollees to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The complaint, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, was filed in the District Court for the Northern District of California and alleges that the mass transfer of data violates federal health privacy protection laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), as well as the Federal Information Security Modernization Act and the Privacy Act.
The attorneys general are asking the court to find that the administration’s transfer of Medicaid data was unauthorized and illegal under federal law, including the Administrative Procedure Act. They are seeking to block the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from making further transfers of such data to the DHS, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), or any other federal agency….