Federal judge dismisses attempt to obtain Michigan voter data in latest rejection of DOJ

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from the Department of Justice that sought to obtain Michigan’s voter rolls, marking the latest judicial rejection in President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging attempts to gain access to voter data from states.

The Justice Department has sued at least 23 states and the District of Columbia in its effort to obtain detailed voter information. In an opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Hala Y. Jarbou, a Trump nominee, said the laws cited by the Justice Department in its complaint, including the Civil Rights Act of 1960, do not require the disclosure of the records it sought.

The Justice Department has said it is seeking the data as part of an effort to ensure election security, but Democratic officials, including Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, say the demand violates state and federal privacy laws. Election officials have raised concerns that federal officials are trying to use the sensitive data for other purposes, such as searching for potential noncitizens on the rolls.

Elections in the United States are administered at the state and local level, where individual voter information is kept.

Natalie Baldassarre, a spokesperson for the Justice Department, declined to comment when reached by email and did not say whether the department will appeal the decision.

In July, the Justice Department requested voter records from the state of Michigan, including a copy of Michigan’s unredacted voter registration list. In September, Michigan officials said the state would only share public voter registration information, which does not include identifying information such as birth dates, addresses and partial Social Security numbers, prompting the federal lawsuit.

“Today’s decision affirms that the law is on our side,” Benson said in a statement Tuesday.

The Justice Department argued in court documents that the information was necessary to ensure Michigan was properly maintaining voter registrations, and cited three federal laws: the Civil Rights Act of 1960, National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Help America Vote act of 2022.

The three laws, “do not allow the United States to obtain the records at issue in this case,” Jarbou wrote in her opinion.

Federal judges have also dismissed similar lawsuits in Oregon and California. A federal judge in Georgia recently dismissed a similar suit after ruling the federal government had sued in the wrong city.