Federal district courts have dismissed 21 separate lawsuits the Justice Department filed this year demanding that states hand over unredacted voter registration data, including driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers, according to tracking by the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. The latest dismissals, covering New Jersey on July 29, Kentucky on July 23, and West Virginia on July 13, extend an unbroken losing streak for the department in a legal campaign that has touched nearly every state in the country.
The Scope of the Campaign
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has sued or formally demanded voter files from dozens of states since the effort began, with courts in California, Oregon, Michigan, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Arizona, Wisconsin, Maine, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, New York, West Virginia, Virginia, New Mexico, Connecticut, Kentucky, New Jersey, Illinois, Colorado and Washington, D.C. all ruling against the department at the district-court level. In several of the cases, judges found that the government had not established sufficient statutory authority for the demands, which sought comprehensive, unredacted voter rolls rather than the aggregate or anonymized data traditionally shared under the National Voter Registration Act.
West Virginia and Kentucky’s Rulings
West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner announced on July 13 that a federal judge in the Southern District of West Virginia had dismissed the DOJ’s suit seeking unredacted voter registration data for the state, a decision Warner’s office characterized as a win for voter privacy. Ten days later, a federal judge dismissed a similar suit targeting Kentucky’s voter rolls, according to the Kentucky Lantern. In both cases, the courts found the department had not shown it was entitled to the sensitive personal data it sought, which critics say could be used to build a centralized federal database of voter information far beyond what states normally disclose to political campaigns or researchers.
The First Appeals Court Ruling
The legal fight moved beyond the district-court level on June 24, 2026, when the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals became the first federal appellate court to weigh in, affirming the dismissal of the DOJ’s lawsuit against Michigan. Legal analysts tracking the litigation say the Sixth Circuit’s ruling could set an influential precedent as similar appeals from other circuits reach federal appellate courts over the coming months, potentially resolving a legal question that has so far been decided unanimously by district judges nationwide.
Why the Justice Department Is Pursuing the Data
Voting-rights groups including the Brennan Center for Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union have argued in court filings and public statements that the department’s ultimate goal is to compile a national voter-surveillance and list-maintenance system that could be used to pressure or compel states to purge eligible voters from their rolls. The department has defended its requests as necessary to verify voter-list accuracy and detect potential noncitizen registrations, arguing federal law gives it authority to review state voter data as part of its election-oversight responsibilities. States that have resisted, including several led by both Democratic and Republican secretaries of state, have countered that federal law does not require them to surrender unredacted personal identifiers absent a specific showing of need.
Political and Legal Reactions
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and Secretary of State William Galvin issued a joint statement applauding their state’s dismissal, framing it as confirmation that federal overreach into state-run elections would not survive judicial review. Conversely, department officials and allied commentators have characterized the losses as the product of politically sympathetic judges rather than a definitive resolution of the underlying legal question, signaling the fight is far from over as the department weighs appeals in additional circuits.
How the Requests Differ From Routine Data Sharing
States already share certain voter-list information with federal agencies and the public under existing law, including provisions designed to catch duplicate registrations across state lines. What distinguishes this year’s demands, according to state officials who have fought them in court, is the scope: rather than requesting aggregate counts or specific fields needed for a defined purpose, the department has sought complete, unredacted files containing driver’s license numbers, partial Social Security numbers and other identifiers that states normally withhold from public records requests. Secretaries of state from both parties, including Republicans in West Virginia and Kentucky, joined Democratic counterparts in resisting the requests, an unusual show of bipartisan pushback in an otherwise polarized election-law environment.
What Happens Next
With 21 district-court losses and one affirmed appellate ruling, the Justice Department faces a steep uphill climb if it continues pursuing similar suits against the remaining states that have not yet turned over unredacted rolls. Should additional circuit courts follow the Sixth Circuit’s lead before the November midterms, the litigation could effectively end nationwide, leaving state secretaries of state — rather than federal prosecutors — as the primary custodians of voter-list maintenance heading into the 2026 general election. Democracy and privacy advocacy groups say they will continue monitoring any renewed requests, while the department has not said publicly whether it intends to appeal the remaining district-court losses to their respective circuits.
Photo: Franco Folini / BY-SA via flickr
