Federal judges in two states on Thursday blocked the Justice Department’s attempt to obtain comprehensive voter-registration records, delivering the latest judicial rebuke to a Trump administration campaign that has now been unanimously rejected in every court to consider it.
In Wisconsin, U.S. District Judge James Pederson said the state’s voter-registration list is not a record that can be demanded under the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the statute the DOJ had cited as its legal authority. Pederson dismissed the department’s lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled in that district.
In Maine, Chief U.S. District Judge Lance Walker granted the state’s motion to dismiss, calling the government’s argument “half-hearted.” Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, had opposed the DOJ’s request by arguing that state law protects the confidentiality of voters’ personal information and that turning over the full registration list would violate that law. Walker’s order did not elaborate on the merits beyond his characterization of the claim.
The simultaneous dismissals add Maine and Wisconsin to a growing list of states where the Justice Department has failed to force the turnover of voter rolls. Since early 2026, federal judges have rejected similar demands in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Rhode Island. In Georgia, a judge dismissed a DOJ lawsuit because it had been filed in the wrong venue, prompting the government to refile in a different city.
The administration has argued that access to detailed state voter data is necessary to enforce federal election laws and prevent fraud, citing the Civil Rights Act of 1960 as its legal foundation. Judges across multiple circuits have declined to accept that interpretation, with several ruling that state voter registration lists do not fall under the statute’s record-inspection provisions. The DOJ has not indicated whether it will appeal the dismissals in Maine or Wisconsin.
Thursday’s rulings leave the department without a single favorable ruling in its months-long effort to obtain state voter rolls through litigation. The cases are part of a broader push by the Trump administration to reshape election administration, including a March executive order that directed agencies to share data and created a national list of eligible voters. That order is itself the subject of ongoing legal challenges.