A federal court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit that the Department of Justice filed against Massachusetts’ state elections chief after he refused to turn over voter registration data for millions of people, adding to a string of legal defeats in the Trump administration’s bid to collect state voter roll information.
The Justice Department sued Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin in December after Galvin did not turn over data, including driver’s license numbers, home addresses, and partial Social Security numbers.
Judge Leo Sorokin, an Obama appointee, dismissed the federal government’s lawsuit on Thursday, saying the Trump administration did not sufficiently explain why it had a legal right to obtain that information.
The victory for Massachusetts comes as the Department of Justice has requested voter data from at least 48 states and Washington, D.C., building on years-long efforts by conservative groups to obtain voter information. The DOJ sued at least 30 of those states that refused to turn over their voters’ information, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Federal judges in January have already dismissed the DOJ’s lawsuits against California and Oregon, in which the department claimed the federal government was entitled to voter information.
Opponents to the federal government’s efforts have suggested the administration and its allies are seeking to build a national voter roll, and could use that data to challenge voters’ eligibility.
“Today’s ruling is a decisive win for Massachusetts voters and the rule of law,” Attorney General Andrea Campbell, whose office represented Galvin, said in a statement. “The privacy of our voters is not up for negotiation, and I will continue to defend the integrity and security of our elections from the Trump Administration’s cruel and harmful agenda.”
The Department of Justice sent letters to Galvin requesting information from its electronic statewide voter registration list in July and August.
After Galvin declined to respond to their requests and his office informed federal officials they would not comply, the DOJ sued Massachusetts at the same time it brought lawsuits against Colorado, Hawaii, and Nevada.
Sorokin said he agreed with Massachusetts’ argument that the Trump administration did not adequately specify its legal “basis” or “purpose” for demanding the voter information.
He called the DOJ’s demand “facially deficient,” in court documents, in part “because the Attorney General advanced no basis whatsoever for her demand for Massachusetts’s records.”
Galvin, in a statement, praised the decision that the federal government’s “demand for unfettered access to personal voter data was completely without any stated basis or purpose.”
“Private voter information should never be the subject of a fishing expedition,” he added.
It was not immediately clear on Thursday whether the DOJ would appeal the ruling. The department has already appealed other dismissals in California, Michigan, and Oregon, according to the Brennan Center, which has tracked the litigation.
Anjali Huynh can be reached at [email protected].
