Judge Dismisses Justice Department Suit for Rhode Island Voter Rolls

A federal judge on Friday dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking Rhode Island’s unredacted voter registration list, the latest court to reject the Trump administration’s push for detailed voter data, CBS News and the Associated Press reported.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, whom President Trump appointed in his first term, wrote in a 14-page decision that federal law does not permit the department “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” according to CBS News and the AP. She found the demand lacked “any factual allegations” suggesting Rhode Island may be violating its duties to maintain accurate voter lists, CBS News reported. The department’s stated purpose, ensuring compliance with the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, “does not plausibly relate to individual voting rights,” she wrote.

The administration has said it needs the data, which includes names, birth dates, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers, to verify that states keep their rolls accurate, CBS News reported. The AP said federal officials describe the requests as a matter of election security. The Justice Department said in an emailed response it would not comment on ongoing litigation, the AP reported.

Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore, who, CBS News reported, had offered the government the state’s public list but not the unredacted version, welcomed the ruling. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states,” he said in a statement. He added that the executive branch “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches” and that “the courts will uphold the rule of law.”

CBS News counted the dismissal as the fifth loss for the department on this issue. Judges have also dismissed suits seeking voter rolls from California, Oregon, Michigan and Massachusetts. In Georgia, a judge dismissed a suit because it was filed in the wrong city, and the government refiled elsewhere, the AP reported. McElroy relied in part on the Oregon ruling, which found the government was not entitled to unredacted lists and had not identified a basis or purpose for the request.

The department has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia that refused to hand over their rolls, according to both outlets. The AP, citing the Brennan Center, reported that at least 12 states have provided or promised to provide detailed lists: Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

Privacy was a central worry. The AP reported that department attorneys acknowledged in the Rhode Island case that they wanted the unredacted data so it could be shared with the Department of Homeland Security to check citizenship status. Both Democratic and some Republican election officials have objected to the requests, the AP said, arguing that they violate state and federal privacy laws.