Federal judges in Maine and Wisconsin on Thursday rejected U.S. Department of Justice efforts to compel the states to hand over detailed voter registration information, part of a wider push by the Trump administration to obtain voter-roll data. The rulings landed as the administration faced repeated setbacks in court over requests that, according to federal filings, were aimed at enforcing civil-rights laws in elections.
In Wisconsin, U.S. District Judge James Pederson dismissed the case brought by federal authorities, saying the voter registration list maintained by the state did not qualify as a record that could be demanded under the Civil Rights Act of 1960. In Maine, Chief U.S. District Judge Lance Walker granted the state’s motion to dismiss and criticized the federal argument as “half-hearted,” while also ruling that managing elections for federal office falls primarily within the states’ role unless Congress passes legislation that preempts that framework.
The Maine and Wisconsin dismissals were described as the latest in a string of defeats for the Justice Department’s attempts to force states to turn over voter rolls. The AP reported that judges have rejected similar demands in a range of other states, and that in one case a judge dismissed a DOJ lawsuit for being filed in the wrong city before the government refiled the action elsewhere.
The Justice Department’s lawsuits target detailed voter data, including personal identifiers such as dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. According to the reporting, the department has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking the detailed information.
Common Cause Wisconsin state director Bianca Shaw said the ruling was a “massive victory for voter privacy and a rejection of federal overreach.” She also argued that the decision helps ensure elections are protected from an “unauthorized national database” that would be a risk for hackers and could be used for intimidation.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat and Trump opponent who is running for governor, said the ruling affirmed that states—not the federal government—are in charge of administering elections. In her statement, Bellows said Trump and the DOJ could continue trying to interfere with elections run by the states, but that Maine would not allow it.
In Wisconsin, groups that opposed the Justice Department’s request included Common Cause, the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, Forward Latino and three voters who intervened in the case. Doug Poland, director of litigation for Law Forward, said the administration’s push reflected “thinly-masked efforts to manipulate and subvert future elections,” and he pointed to what he said was the court’s recognition of the effort as an attempt to gather and weaponize data while wrapping it in the language of voting-rights enforcement.
Walker, in the Maine case, wrote that under the Constitution, states are the primary regulators and administrators of elections for federal office unless Congress passes legislation that preempts that role. Pederson in Wisconsin was appointed by former President Barack Obama, while Walker was a Trump appointee, according to the AP report.
As the Justice Department weighs next steps, officials for the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the rulings or a potential appeal.