Part 3 in a series on Technology, Power, and the Trump Administration
Falls Church, VA. Freedom is not being taken by tanks in the streets. It is being taken in data centers and federal contracts. In 2025, the Trump-Vance administration has built an unprecedented machinery of data consolidation, and Americans are meeting it in the courts.
In Part 1 of this series, the News-Press reported on how algorithms invisibly shape what people see, believe, and even vote for. In Part 2, we revealed how new Titans like Zuckerberg, Musk, Thiel, Bezos, and BlackRock have merged their monopolies with politics, creating systems of control that reach into every part of life. In Part 3, those fears are no longer theoretical. They are already being tested in lawsuits that could decide the future of democracy.
The National Data Banks
On September 30, the League of Women Voters of the United States, joined by its Virginia and Louisiana chapters, filed a class action lawsuit in federal court along with the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Represented by Democracy Forward, CREW, and the Fair Elections Center, the plaintiffs accuse the administration of secretly creating “National Data Banks” that consolidate massive amounts of sensitive information.
These efforts are no accident. They echo Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s 900-page policy blueprint for a second Trump term, which explicitly called for dismantling federal guardrails and consolidating government data systems under tighter executive control. What critics once feared as theory is now surfacing in legal complaints across the country.
The Virginia connection is key. Joan Porte, president of the League of Women Voters of Virginia, is one of the lead plaintiffs. She said Virginians “deserve the assurance that their right to privacy and right to vote will be protected” and described the databases as an illegal invasion of residents’ most personal records.
The complaint spells out what these systems contain: Social Security records, IRS tax returns, HHS and Medicaid files, Department of Labor data, state voter registrations, biometric identifiers, and even children’s case files. The lawsuit argues that by pooling such sensitive data, the government is violating both the Privacy Act of 1974 and the U.S. Constitution.
Already, the merged data has been repurposed to purge voter rolls. In Virginia, civil rights groups fear that naturalized citizens could be disproportionately flagged as “non-citizens” based on outdated or mismatched records, putting their right to vote at risk in 2026 and beyond. The plaintiffs warn that hundreds of thousands of legitimate voters nationwide could be stripped from rolls in the same way.
States Fight Back
New York and California have filed suits to stop the administration from seizing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program records, which contain the Social Security numbers and immigration status of more than seven million families. Attorneys general in both states warn the demand will terrify households into abandoning food aid for fear of surveillance.
At the same time, the Justice Department has sued California, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and New Hampshire to force them to turn over their full voter registration lists. These files include addresses, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers for tens of millions of voters. State election officials describe the move as an unprecedented federal takeover of voter rolls.
This push is straight out of Project 2025, which advocated expanding federal oversight of state elections to fight “fraud.” Opponents argue that in practice, it risks mass disenfranchisement by turning clerical errors into grounds for expulsion from the rolls.
California has also filed a separate lawsuit to block Medicaid health records from being shared with immigration enforcement. More than fifteen million Californians are enrolled in the program, and the state argues that handing over their files would violate HIPAA protections.
Labor and Unions Join In
Unions are also taking action. The American Federation of Teachers and other groups have sued to prevent the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency from collecting student loan files, federal employment records, and Treasury data.
Earlier this year, 19 attorneys general won an injunction that stopped the department from accessing Treasury’s payment systems, which process more than five trillion dollars annually in tax refunds and Social Security checks. The ruling marked the first major legal setback for the administration’s data agenda.
Why It Matters
The Privacy Act of 1974 was written after Watergate to prevent the creation of national databases. HIPAA was passed in 1996 to guarantee the privacy of medical records. Both laws are being tested now.
History has already shown the danger of data hoarding. In 2015, hackers breached the Office of Personnel Management and stole records of 21.5 million Americans, including fingerprints and security clearance files. Intelligence officials believe those records are now in the hands of foreign adversaries. The new systems being built are far larger and far more dangerous.
Once created, these databases will not disappear. They will outlast presidents and elections. Whoever controls them will control the people they contain. And if Project 2025’s central vision is fulfilled, that control will be concentrated in the executive branch with minimal checks and balances.
What It Means for Falls Church
Falls Church has about 15,000 registered voters. Even a one percent error rate in a national purge system could wrongly flag 150 local residents. In a city where elections are often decided by small margins, that could swing outcomes.
Families using SNAP or Medicaid could see their personal data exposed without consent. Students with loans could have their financial records tracked and analyzed by political operatives. Seniors relying on Social Security could have their payments tied to files in a federal data vault.
The lawsuits are not remote skirmishes in Washington. They are about whether citizens in communities like Falls Church will have their rights protected or stripped away by code and databases.
The Road Ahead
The courts now face a historic test. If judges enforce the Privacy Act and HIPAA, they may stop the consolidation of personal data and preserve the boundaries between state and citizen. If they do not, the architecture of a data-driven state will stand.
The lawsuits piling up are the first line of resistance. What is at stake is not just privacy, but the survival of democracy itself. Freedom may not be lost in a single dramatic moment. It may vanish through a login, a purge, or a breach.
And this is only the beginning. In Part 4 of this series, the News-Press will examine what happens when the government hands its power to private corporations with no oversight and no accountability. These companies are building custom systems that lock Americans into closed platforms where one corporation holds absolute control over identity, records, and rights. If national data banks are dangerous, outsourcing them to private Titans could prove irreversible.
