New Order Issued in Case Brought to Protect Americans’ Sensitive Information
September 9, 2026 - Washington, D.C. – A federal appeals court has upheld an order in Center for Taxpayer Rights et al. v Internal Revenue 
Service et al, continuing to prevent the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from disclosing mass amounts of sensitive personal data to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The appeals court decision is the latest milestone in the case brought by Democracy Forward on behalf of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, Main Street Alliance, Communications Workers of America, and the National Federation of Federal Employees.
The plaintiffs in the case achieved a stay last November that prevented the IRS from sharing data on millions of taxpayers with ICE. In February, after the government appealed that decision, it was revealed that the slipshod data-sharing process put in place by the Trump-Vance administration at IRS led to the illegal disclosure of confidential taxpayer information to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Tuesday’s ruling keeps the prohibition on this data sharing between IRS and ICE in place as the case continues.
The DC Circuit found that the IRS’s new data-sharing policy is a “far cry” from the prior policy, and that the new policy “indisputably contravenes” the law. The court further said that the administration’s objections that the preliminary injunction was burdensome is “weak sauce,” and added that “the IRS is now on notice twice over regarding the legal inadequacies of its summer 2025 disclosures. The government and its personnel face steep civil and criminal consequences for willful disclosure of information.”
“Today’s order is a resounding victory for the protection of all taxpayers’ right to the confidentiality of their tax information in the hands of the IRS. It makes clear that the Treasury Department and the IRS cannot act in violation of the law just because they want to,” said Nina Olson, Executive Director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights. “Congress has set strict parameters around the sharing of taxpayer information for a reason — that trust in the tax system depends on protection of taxpayer information. By unlawfully sharing return information with ICE, the IRS violated that trust. The court’s order today is a step toward restoring it.”
“Small business owners already deal with enough uncertainty without wondering whether their tax data is being handed over for immigration enforcement. This ruling confirms what we’ve argued from the start, that the IRS broke faith with taxpayers when it agreed to share this information with ICE. Main Street Alliance will keep fighting to make sure our members’ personal information stays private and protected, as the law requires,” said Richard Trent, Executive Director of the Main Street Alliance.
“The security and confidentiality of taxpayer information are fundamental to maintaining trust between the American people and the government responsible for collecting their taxes,” said NFFE National President Randy Erwin. “When taxpayers fear that the personal information they provide to the IRS could be exploited for unrelated political or enforcement purposes, our nation’s ability to administer and collect taxes effectively is put at risk. Americans across the political spectrum value their privacy and expect the government to respect it. Using confidential IRS data to advance political objectives, including immigration enforcement priorities, crosses a line that should concern Democrats and Republicans alike. That is simply too much Big Brother for most Americans.”
In 2025, the IRS abruptly abandoned longstanding commitments to privacy and adopted a new data-access policy that unlawfully permitted the broad sharing of sensitive taxpayer data outside the agency. The IRS established a new process to share taxpayer data with ICE, including taxpayers’ last-known addresses, and the IRS processed ICE’s mass request for the last-known addresses of 1.2 million taxpayers, sharing address information for approximately 47,000 individuals. Soon after the plaintiffs challenged the new policy, a District Court issued an order stopping the unlawful data sharing, which the government appealed. That appeal failed today.
“The Trump-Vance administration’s dangerous data sharing policies have resulted in the violation of the privacy rights of millions of Americans and we are pleased the court has again acted to stop this unlawful behavior,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “The privacy laws enacted in the post-Watergate era exist to prevent abuses of power just like this. The administration has already admitted to being careless and irresponsible with our sensitive, personal information, and now yet another court has held the administration in check.”
As the appeal was being considered, the IRS confirmed the Washington Post’s reporting in a court filing in which Dottie Romo, the IRS chief risk and control officer, swore in a declaration that the IRS provided confidential taxpayer information even when DHS officials could not provide sufficient data to positively identify a specific individual. The revelation came as filings made by DOJ in another case litigated by Democracy Forward have revealed that privacy protocols were violated at the Social Security Administration and that a DOGE team member at SSA signed a “voter data agreement” with an organization involved in seeking to “overturn state election results.”
The legal team at Democracy Forward on this case includes Daniel A. McGrath, Simon Brewer, Maddy Gitomer, Johanna Hickman, Robin Thurston, and Steven Bressler.
Today’s opinion can be found here.
Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.
Source: Democracy Forward