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Canadian Trump critic sues after Homeland Security seeks 'vast swaths' of his Google information
A Canadian critic of the Trump administration has filed a legal complaint against Markwayne Mullin, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, aimed at stopping the U.S. government from obtaining his personal information from Google.
In a press release issued on Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union said the DHS issued a summons to Google for those records, after the plaintiff posted online criticism of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis back in January.
The lawsuit to quash the summons has been brought by the ACLU on the Canadian man’s behalf in the U.S. District Court of Northern California, where Google is headquartered.
“Plaintiff John Doe uses a pseudonym online and in this lawsuit to protect his privacy and family,” says the ACLU. “Doe regularly posts strongly worded criticisms of President Trump and his policies on (his) social media accounts, including his account on X. His posts have collectively received well over 100,000 views.”
On Feb. 14, 2026, DHS issued the summons to Google with broad requests for information associated with the Gmail address linked to Doe’s X account. It covers a five-month period between Sept. 1, 2025 and Feb. 4, 2026.
The summons, says the complaint, is seeking the disclosure of “vast swaths of information” about John Doe, including all records relating to his Gmail and associated accounts, such as his name, where he lives, information about his physical movements, and detailed records about the websites he visits and the people he communicates with online. It also seeks disclosure of “any associated names, residential addresses, telephone numbers, and credit card numbers or bank account numbers.”
The ACLU says: “Google has the capacity to collect this information and often does.”
The complaint notes that DHS issued the summons based on its own administrative authority, without applying to a court.
Moreover, the summons cites a customs enforcement law as its legal basis, even though John Doe is a Canadian citizen who resides in Canada, has not entered the U.S. since 2015 and does not conduct business with anyone in the U.S.
In making John Doe’s case, the lawsuit delves into the history of attempts made by the two Trump administrations to acquire personal information about its critics. During the first administration, it was DHS’s Inspector General that concluded DHS officials had improperly used the same legal basis (customs enforcement) in attempts “to unmask social media users, and Twitter filed a lawsuit challenging the practice.”
During the second administration, says the ACLU, several social media users have filed actions challenging administrative subpoenas seeking to reveal their identities and obtain other information about them. In response, “DHS has withdrawn several subpoenas subjected to such challenges before a court could fully review them.”
Nonetheless, “the Trump administration continues to attempt to unmask social media users who criticize the administration — a transparent gambit to chill speech that the government dislikes.”
The plaintiff is quoted in the ACLU’s press release as being an admirer of the U.S. commitment to free speech and expresses incredulity over being targeted for his online comments. “Never in a million years did I think that, after criticizing the U.S. government, I would be targeted with a summons seeking to find out who I am, where I live, where I go, and what I read online. You don’t have to be from America to know that this is un-American.”
The present lawsuit goes further than previous legal challenges, says the ACLU. It asks the court to invalidate this summons and make it “clear that the government may not use its customs enforcement authority to seek to identify and intimidate its critics.”
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