The Trump administration suffered its 19th straight court loss in its crusade to seize state voter rolls, per a report.
An Illinois-based federal judge tossed a Department of Justice lawsuit that demanded the state’s unredacted voter rolls. U.S. District Judge Colleen Lawless wrote in her opinion that amending the complaint would be “futile” and dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it can’t be revived in district court.
Democracy Docket noted in its reporting that the “brutal” loss came two days after another federal judge dismissed the DOJ’s lawsuit seeking New Jersey voter rolls.
Illinois had already provided the DOJ with its redacted voter rolls, Democracy Docket noted, but the DOJ lawsuit sought sensitive identifying information, including driver’s license and Social Security numbers.
Lawless stressed, in her opinion, that the attorney general has to state a “legitimate purpose” to demand voter rolls. If an AG could simply justify a demand for voter rolls with a statement of any purpose, the current statutory requirement “would be pointless and it would provide him with unfettered authority to demand voting records.”
The DOJ argued in its lawsuit that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 requires states to hand over voter rolls and federal voter records that came into their possession. Lawless, however, noted that the executive director of the Illinois Board of Elections created the voter rolls.
“An ordinary English speaker would not say that she has come into possession of something that she created, established, and maintained,” Lawless wrote. “Instead, the election officials are required to preserve records that come into their possession from outside sources.”
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