A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Arizona, handing the Trump administration another setback in its effort to collect voter data before the midterm elections.
U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich ruled that Arizona’s statewide voter registration list was not a document subject to request by the attorney general under federal law, and dismissed the case with prejudice because amendment would be legally futile.
The dispute centered on the Justice Department’s demand for detailed voter-registration information, including dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial social security numbers. The department has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia in a broad campaign to obtain the records, while at least 13 states have either turned over information voluntarily or promised to provide detailed voter registration lists.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the database the federal government wanted contained sensitive personal information. “This moment is a win for voter privacy,” he said. “This is now the sixth federal court to reach the same conclusion,. Our offices will continue to defend the privacy of Arizona voters against federal overreach.”
The ruling adds to a growing string of losses for the administration. Judges have already ruled against the Justice Department in Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Oregon, and a separate case in Georgia was dismissed because it was filed in the wrong city before being refiled elsewhere. In Rhode Island, a Justice Department attorney said the department wanted unredacted voter roll information to share with the Department of Homeland Security so it could check citizenship status through the Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, known as Save, which uses the last four digits of a person’s social security number.
The larger fight traces back to the National Voter Registration Act, implemented in 1993, which upheld states’ right to screen their voter rolls while requiring only that states make a request under the law. Tuesday’s Arizona Voter Data Lawsuit Dismissal leaves the administration without another avenue in that state, and Brnovich’s ruling makes clear the federal government cannot force Arizona to hand over the list it sought.
Fontes put the state’s position bluntly after the decision: “In the meantime, pound sand.”
