{"id":29110,"date":"2026-08-05T23:34:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29110"},"modified":"2026-08-05T23:34:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:34:33","slug":"dojs-voter-roll-crusade-hits-a-courthouse-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29110","title":{"rendered":"DOJ&#039;s voter roll crusade hits a courthouse wall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/66z60TnMmtgylF0gDJnn0I_f3G0=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/06\/25\/1782400811875.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Federal judges, appointed by both Democrats and Republicans, have handed the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/08\/03\/trump-anti-weaponization-fund-blanche\" target=\"_blank\">Justice Department<\/a> a steady stream of losses in the administration&#8217;s attempt to obtain sensitive voter information.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> The DOJ has sued <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-sues-five-additional-states-failure-produce-voter-rolls\" target=\"_blank\">30<\/a> U.S. states, as well as D.C., for rebuffing its demands, all to back President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Trump<\/a>&#8216;s efforts to reshape voting after years of spreading unproven claims of massive fraud.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>The latest: <\/strong>U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer, a George W. Bush appointee, <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.cod.249799\/gov.uscourts.cod.249799.102.0_1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">sided<\/a> with Colorado in dismissing the DOJ&#8217;s case against the Democratic secretary of state with prejudice Monday.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The administration argued that provisions in the Civil Rights Act of 1960 gave the attorney general &#8220;sweeping power&#8221; to obtain the sought-after records, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/72021508\/2\/united-states-v-griswold\/\" target=\"_blank\">included<\/a> registrants&#8217; driver&#8217;s license numbers and the last four digits of their Social Security identifier. <\/li>\n<li>But Brimmer concluded that compelling the release of the state&#8217;s voter lists did not fall under that authority.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>By the numbers: <\/strong>He&#8217;s not alone: Judges in 20 cases, per the Brennan Center for Justice&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/research-reports\/tracker-justice-department-requests-voter-information\" target=\"_blank\">tracker<\/a>, have rebuked the DOJ in a consistent losing streak.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A judge in California <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.cacd.988465\/gov.uscourts.cacd.988465.128.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">called<\/a> the request &#8220;unprecedented and illegal.&#8221; In Rhode Island, a Trump appointee <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.rid.60988\/gov.uscourts.rid.60988.51.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">named<\/a> it a &#8220;fishing expedition.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>And in June, a U.S. appeals court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov\/opinions.pdf\/26a0180p-06.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">joined<\/a> the growing body of federal judges ruling against the DOJ, handing the administration its first appellate-level loss in its campaign.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The other side: <\/strong>Meanwhile, more than a dozen states have agreed to share the data the administration is seeking \u2014 while others agreed only to provide data that is <a href=\"https:\/\/thebeaconnews.org\/stories\/2026\/03\/20\/department-of-justice-says-kansas-handed-over-private-voter-data\/\" target=\"_blank\">publicly<\/a> available.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Zoom out:<\/strong> The DOJ&#8217;s quest for voter information is far from the only election pressure the administration has put on states. But it hasn&#8217;t been all smooth sailing on those fronts, either.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Trump<\/a> has claimed hundreds of thousands of unauthorized immigrants are on voting rolls in key states \u2014 but the numbers the Department of Homeland Security has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/news\/2026\/07\/17\/dhs-secretary-markwayne-mullin-sends-letters-secretaries-state-warning-about-non\" target=\"_blank\">publicized<\/a> in four states (all of which refused to hand over voter rolls) have baffled election officials, NPR <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/07\/31\/nx-s1-5906708\/trump-claim-noncitizens-midterms-election-interference-voter-rolls\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>He&#8217;s pushed hard on a proof-of-citizenship voting bill, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/24\/trump-senate-republicans-save-act-cassidy\" target=\"_blank\">SAVE America Act<\/a>, but its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/08\/03\/senate-republicans-save-act-august-recess-trump\" target=\"_blank\">future<\/a> in the Senate remains murky.<\/li>\n<li>And his push to restrict mail-in voting, which has hit legal headwinds, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/2026\/08\/states-challenging-executive-order-on-mail-in-voting-ask-justices-to-leave-in-place-limits-on-it\/\" target=\"_blank\">could<\/a> be heading to the Supreme Court.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines: <\/strong>The broad sweep approach to obtaining voter info isn&#8217;t shaping up for the administration; some of the information has been received in other ways. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ICE investigators obtained <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/13\/ice-voter-files-texas-north-carolina\" target=\"_blank\">individual voter files<\/a> in at least two counties \u2014\u00a0one in Texas and one in North Carolina.   <\/li>\n<li>And the FBI recently obtained the IP address of someone who completed their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/31\/fbi-voter-ip-address-investigation\" target=\"_blank\">voter registration online<\/a> in South Carolina, <em>Axios&#8217; Brittany Gibson reports.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Go deeper: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/30\/election-integrity-fears-november-midterms-poll\" target=\"_blank\">America gripped by election fears as November nears<\/a><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal judges, appointed by both Democrats and Republicans, have handed the Justice Department a steady stream of losses in the administration&#8217;s attempt to obtain sensitive voter information. Why it matters: The DOJ has sued 30 U.S. states, as well as D.C., for rebuffing its demands, all to back President Trump&#8216;s efforts to reshape voting after&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/66z60TnMmtgylF0gDJnn0I_f3G0=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/06\/25\/1782400811875.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}