Portland, Ore.– A federal judge in Oregon dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit seeking Oregon’s unredacted voter rolls on Monday in another setback for broad efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to obtain detailed voter data from states.
At a hearing, U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubay said he would dismiss the lawsuit and issue a final written opinion in the coming days. The updated docket for the case showed that Oregon’s decision to dismiss the case has been upheld.
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield welcomed the move.
“The court dismissed this case because the federal government never met the legal standard for obtaining these records in the first place,” he said in an emailed statement. “Oregonians deserve to know that voting laws cannot be used as a backdoor to seize their personal information.”
The Ministry of Justice declined to comment.
Casubay scheduled the hearing after U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz dated Saturday, the same day federal immigration agents 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretty was shot and killed In Minneapolis, which has seen widespread protests over increased immigration enforcement and its predecessors The murder of Rene Judd By an immigration officer.
In her letter, Bondi asked the Democratic governor to support immigration officials and shared three “simple steps” to “help restore law and order” — including giving the Department of Justice the ability to “access voter rolls to ensure that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law.”
Bondi also demanded state records on Medicaid and food assistance programs, and the repeal of sanctuary policies that limit local officials’ cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
The Ministry of Justice is seeking detailed data on voters, including names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers. Officials in several states said handing over such information would violate state and federal privacy laws.
The Justice Department has filed lawsuits against at least 23 states and the District of Columbia as part of its efforts to collect such data. Last week a A federal judge in Georgia dismissed such a lawsuit After the ruling, the federal government filed a lawsuit in the wrong city, and earlier this month a A federal judge in California dismissed the lawsuit There after it emerged that the government’s request was “unprecedented and illegal”.
The department said it needs access to detailed voter data to ensure election officials are following federal election laws. Election officials have disputed this Raised concerns Federal officials are trying to use sensitive data for other purposes, such as searching for potential noncitizens on lists.
In a letter in July, the department asked Oregon for an electronic copy of its statewide registration list and details of the steps it had taken to remove ineligible voters, court filings show. It sent another letter in August saying it needed a list of voters to evaluate compliance with federal law, and that the list should include information such as full names, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers.
Oregon officials responded in August that the department lacked the authority to request the list and offered to make the list available to the public, court filings show. The department said it has the authority to request the data under multiple federal laws and adheres to privacy laws.
Casubay called a hearing for Monday in the Oregon lawsuit so lawyers on both sides could present additional arguments about the relevance of Bondi’s letter to explaining the “basis and purpose” of the department’s request for voter data.
The department said it has the authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to request voter records, as the law stipulates that these records must be made available to the US Attorney General upon a written request explaining the basis and purpose of the request. However, Kasubai said the department’s August letter did not meet the law’s requirement to specify the basis and purpose when requesting voter records. He added that he read the Congressional Record at the time the law was passed and found it “unequivocal” regarding the release of records related to election discrimination investigations.
The Justice Department’s outreach has alarmed some election officials because the agency does not have the constitutional authority to administer elections. This power is granted to the states and Congress. Federal law also protects the sharing of individual data with the federal government.