Overview
- U.S. District Judge David O. Carter dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit, calling the demand for Californians’ sensitive identifiers unprecedented and illegal with a chilling effect on voter participation.
- A federal judge in Oregon said his tentative ruling is to dismiss a similar DOJ case seeking highly personal data on that state's voters.
- The DOJ has sued 23 states and Washington, D.C., to obtain full voter files, and further appeals are expected as the broader litigation continues.
- California argued that privacy laws bar disclosure of data such as dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, addresses and partial Social Security numbers, and the court found statutes like the Civil Rights Act, NVRA and HAVA do not permit such a sweep.
- Civil liberties groups praised the ruling as a protection of voter privacy, while reporting has shown DOJ discussions with Homeland Security about using voter data, which the court cited in scrutinizing the request’s purpose.