De-escalation: Federal judges dismiss DOJ voter-data suits

Federal judges in Maine and Wisconsin dismissed Justice Department lawsuits seeking unredacted statewide voter-registration lists with sensitive personal data. In Wisconsin, U.S. District Judge James Peterson ruled the voter-registration list is not a record that must be produced under the Civil Rights Act of 1960. In Maine, Chief U.S. District Judge Lance Walker granted the state’s motion to dismiss.

Walker’s 22-page decision said neither the Civil Rights Act, the Help America Vote Act, nor the National Voter Registration Act authorizes the federal government to compel production of an unredacted computerized voter file for a line-by-line audit. The department had asked for full names, residential and mailing addresses, dates of birth, party affiliation, voting history, driver’s license or ID numbers, and partial Social Security numbers.

The two rulings were the seventh and eighth defeats for the effort, following losses in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, and Rhode Island; in Georgia, a similar case was tossed for being filed in the wrong city and then refiled. The government has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking such data. In Maine, the demand began with 2025 letters and a September 2025 lawsuit after the state refused to turn over an unredacted file while answering questions about its list-maintenance practices.

AI-synthesized from multiple reported sources