State AG News: Data Privacy, Consumer Protection, Administrative Law (August 13-19, 2026)

Each week, Crowell & Moring’s State Attorneys General team highlights significant actions that State AGs have taken. See our State Attorneys General page for more insights. Below are the updates from August 13-19, 2026:

Multistate

• A multistate coalition of 21 attorneys general sued the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security, challenging a federal directive seeking access to the Commercial Driver’s License Information System, a database of CDL holder records maintained by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). The lawsuit alleges that the agencies improperly threatened to terminate all federal grants and contracts with the AAMVA if the organization refused to provide the data. The complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief for alleged violations of multiple federal privacy laws and the Administrative Procedure Act.

• A multistate coalition of 21 attorneys general obtained a decision from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts striking down a key provision of the Trump Administration’s March 2025 proposed “Marketplace Integrity and Affordability” rule. The provision would have removed certain types of gender-affirming care from the Affordable Care Act’s ten essential health benefit categories. The court found the provision unlawful because the Department of Health & Human Services failed to submit a certification report required under the ACA.

• A multistate coalition of 22 attorneys general submitted a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency urging finalization of proposed rules updating the agency’s National Environmental Protection Act procedures. The changes would expand categorical exclusions for low-impact projects, clarify multi-agency review leadership, enforce existing page limits and deadlines, and implement a new fast-track review option created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Alaska

• Acting Attorney General Cori Mills reached a fourth settlement in six months with a Southeast Alaska jewelry business, Jewelry Land, for misrepresenting products as originating from or being made in Alaska. A Juneau Superior Court entered a consent decree subjecting Jewelry Land to a permanent injunction requiring it to maintain records verifying the Alaskan origin of any products marketed as such, with state investigators empowered to audit those records. Jewelry Land must also pay $20,000 in civil penalties to the State of Alaska.

• Acting Attorney General Mills secured a judgment against Alaska Motor Home Inc. and its owner Peter Harkovitch for allegedly refusing to honor or refund outstanding motor home reservations after abruptly closing in 2024. The judgment also addressed Harkovitch’s alleged repeat violations of a prior consent order and forgery of a consumer’s signature in a credit card chargeback dispute. The order requires Harkovitch to pay $183,000 in civil penalties and $50,409.86 in consumer restitution, and bars him from owning a business in Alaska until he demonstrates to the Anchorage Superior Court that his future business will comply with the law and that proceeds will go toward his restitution obligations.

Arizona

• Attorney General Kris Mayes sued MV Realty of Arizona, LLC; MV Brokerage of Arizona, LLC; MV Realty PBC, LLC; and related corporate officers, alleging the defendants violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act and Arizona Telephone Solicitations Statutes by running a predatory scheme offering immediate cash payments to financially vulnerable homeowners in exchange for exclusive listing agreements. The complaint further alleges that the defendants deceptively recorded memorandums that functioned as liens on homeowners’ properties, blocking home transfers, refinancing, or cancellation unless the homeowner paid large “Early Termination Fees,” without disclosing the 40-year contract term, the lien, or the agreement’s binding effect on heirs. The lawsuit requests civil penalties, restitution, and termination of the Memorandums recorded against homeowners’ properties.

Connecticut

• Attorney General William Tong reached a settlement with Anesthesia Smoke and Convenience, a smoke shop, and its owner, Fadhl Shaif, for allegedly violating a 2024 stipulated judgment prohibiting the business from selling high-THC products without a cannabis license by continuing to stock hundreds of cannabis products and failing to submit required compliance reports. The settlement mandates the permanent closure of the store, bars Shaif from owning or operating any business in Connecticut, and requires payment of $100,000 to the state, and an additional $125,000 suspended fine to ensure ongoing compliance.

Illinois

• Attorney General Kwame Raoul secured a consent order with Pacific Ethanol Pekin LLC (now Alto Pekin LLC) regarding alleged water pollution into the Illinois River caused by the company’s ethanol refinery. The order requires payment of $75,000 in civil penalties and $125,000 to fund the replacement of a water control structure at the Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge.

Iowa

• Attorney General Brenna Bird secured a judgment from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upholding Iowa’s laws prohibiting residential contractors from acting simultaneously as public adjusters on the same project. The challenge, brought by Iowa contractor Shamrock Hills, LLC, alleged the laws violated the First Amendment and were unconstitutionally vague.

Maryland

• Attorney General Anthony G. Brown won a lawsuit blocking the Trump Administration from relocating new planned FBI headquarters from a Greenbelt, Maryland site to the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a permanent injunction enjoining the administration from taking any action to facilitate the relocation and from disbursing the $555 million in funds the FBI had sought to redirect for that purpose.

Massachusetts

• Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell obtained an Assurance of Discontinuance with two real estate companies, AvalonBay Communities, Inc. and Equity Residential, regarding their proposed merger’s potential to impact competition in the mid-rise and high-rise multifamily rental housing market in downtown Boston. The companies agreed to pest two downtown Boston buildings to an approved buyer and to contribute $500,000 to the City of Quincy Affordable Housing Trust.

Michigan

• Attorney General Dana Nessel secured an order denying the Department of Justice’s petition for rehearing of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ denial of a lawsuit demanding Michigan’s unredacted electronic voter list, which includes full dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers, and personal identification card numbers. The Sixth Circuit held that the voter file is not a record subject to disclosure under the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

• Attorney General Nessel sued nonprofit Chosen Kingdom Builders and its president, Kwanzel Revon Howerton, alleging that the defendants deceived property owners and tenants into signing leases by misrepresenting the organization’s available funding and housing assistance, resulting in tenants facing eviction and property owners losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. The lawsuit also alleges that Chosen Kingdom Builders did not have a required real estate license and did not conduct proper inspections. The complaint, brought under the Michigan Consumer Protection Act, seeks removal of Howerton from the board of directors, injunctive relief, and dissolution of the nonprofit.

Minnesota

• Attorney General Keith Ellison obtained an order from the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota denying a lawsuit brought by the Trump Administration seeking the full, unredacted Statewide Voter Registration List. The court found that neither the Civil Rights Act of 1960 nor the Help America Vote Act gives the federal government the right to undertake such a “fishing expedition” where no allegation of noncompliance was made.

New York

• Attorney General Letitia James announced a $6 million settlement from three Buffalo-area nursing homes, Safire Rehabilitation of Northtowns, Safire Rehabilitation of Southtowns, and Williamsville Suburban Nursing Home, for allegedly submitting fraudulent claims to Medicaid by falsely inflating data on residents’ rehabilitative needs during reimbursement-rate calculation periods while reducing actual services provided during non-rate periods. In addition to the $6 million payable to Medicaid and the state, the settlement requires the nursing homes to pay $3 million to the federal government for Medicare fraud, and to adopt new compliance policies.

• Attorney General James filed suit against a non-profit, Healing for Heroes – A Disabled Veteran’s Retreat and Wooded Oasis, Inc. (Healing for Heroes), for allegedly defrauding donors by using charity funds for board members’ personal vacations and expenses. The lawsuit seeks dissolution of the organization so that its assets can be distributed to other charities serving veterans. It also seeks damages, penalties of $1,000 per violation of state charities law and $5000 per violation of the FAIR Business Practices Act, and a permanent injunction barring the charity’s founders from soliciting funds or leading any other charity in New York.

Oregon

• Attorney General Dan Rayfield secured a contempt ruling against NW Metals, Inc. and its president, Moyata Anotta, for allegedly willfully and knowingly violating a 2021 stipulated court order requiring compliance with environmental laws. The company allegedly failed to obtain air, solid waste, and stormwater permits required to operate a metal shredder. The order prohibits NW Metals from operating until it complies with those permitting requirements.

Pennsylvania

• Attorney General Dave Sunday sued N. Stanley Paving, Inc. and its owner, Nicholas E. Stanley, alleging that the defendants violated the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act and the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law by employing high-pressure sales tactics, increasing contract prices without consumer knowledge, abandoning projects, performing substandard work, and secretly adding terms to contracts. The complaint seeks consumer restitution, civil penalties, costs, and injunctive relief.

Texas

• Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed the Massachusetts federal district court’s preliminary injunction barring the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) from litigating its April 2026 Texas state court lawsuit against ActBlue, a political fundraising platform. The Texas state lawsuit alleged ActBlue violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by processing gift card donations despite representing that it had discontinued that practice. The appeal argues the Massachusetts court lacked jurisdiction over the OAG, was an improper venue, and improperly interfered with ongoing state court proceedings concerning enforcement of Texas consumer protection law.