A federal judge ruled against the Trump administration’s efforts to get access to sensitive voter information from Michigan, marking the latest setback in the administration’s efforts to obtain the data from various states.
The Justice Department claimed the National Voter Registration Act, Help America Vote Act, and Civil Rights Act of 1960 requires states to turn over the full state voter registration lists including voters’ personal information, such as Social Security numbers and driver’s license information, as part of voter roll maintenance. U.S. District Judge Hala Jarbou, an appointee of President Donald Trump, dismissed the lawsuit filed by the DOJ in a ruling released Tuesday.
“HAVA, the NVRA, and the CRA do not allow the United States to obtain the records at issue in this case,” Jarbou said in the ruling. “Therefore, the Court will grant the motions to dismiss.”
Jarbou ruled that finding the NVRA requires “public disclosure of all private information submitted for voter registration purposes would potentially cause the statute to impose an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote guaranteed by the First Amendment.”
She also ruled the Help America Vote Act does not require the disclosure of sensitive information, finding the CRA of 1960 does not require voter registration lists to be shared “because they are not documents that come into the possession of election officials.”
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit against Michigan officials in September 2025, with Attorney General Pam Bondi saying at the time that “clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections.” Bondi also warned that states that did not hand over the sensitive data would be met with a lawsuit.
The DOJ has sued two dozen states and the District of Columbia for access to the full voter rolls, including the sensitive voter information, as part of its efforts to perform voter roll maintenance. The ruling Tuesday in Michigan marks the third time a federal district court has tossed the administration’s efforts to get the sensitive voter information.
Last month, U.S. District Judge David Carter dismissed the lawsuit seeking to get access to California’s voter rolls, saying “the government’s request is unprecedented and illegal.” U.S District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai also rejected an effort to get access to Oregon’s voter rolls, issuing a sharply worded opinion earlier this month.
“The presumption of regularity that has been previously extended to Plaintiff that it could be taken at its word—with little doubt about its intentions and stated purposes—no longer holds,” Kasubhai said in the ruling dismissing the Oregon lawsuit. “When Plaintiff, in this case, conveys assurances that any private and sensitive data will remain private and used only for a declared and limited purpose, it must be thoroughly scrutinized and squared with its open and public statements to the contrary.”
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The DOJ could appeal Tuesday’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. The department has yet to appeal the California and Oregon rulings to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, the appeals court that oversees the federal district courts for those respective states.
The trio of losses come as Trump has increasingly talked about “nationalizing the vote,” insisting that states cannot be trusted to fairly operate elections ahead of the November midterm elections.
