Overview
- U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Providence dismissed the Trump Justice Department’s lawsuit Friday, rejecting its demand for Rhode Island’s unredacted voter rolls.
- McElroy said the Civil Rights Act of 1960 and federal voter list laws do not permit a “fishing expedition” and noted the DOJ offered no facts suggesting Rhode Island violated the National Voter Registration Act or Help America Vote Act.
- Rhode Island’s secretary of state had offered the public voter list but refused to turn over birth dates, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.
- DOJ lawyers told the court they planned to share any obtained data with the Department of Homeland Security to check citizenship, which heightened privacy concerns even as at least 12 states have provided or pledged detailed files.
- The decision marks the DOJ’s fifth courtroom loss after defeats in California, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Oregon, with roughly two dozen similar suits still pending and one settlement secured in Oklahoma.