The Trump administration on Thursday was dealt its first legal setback in its unprecedented effort to consolidate voter data traditionally held by states.
Federal district Judge David O. Carter dismissed a lawsuit in California that sought to give the Justice Department access to that state's unredacted voter file, which includes sensitive data like Social Security numbers and driver's license data. A district judge in Oregon also said in court Wednesday that he was tentatively planning to do the same there.
California and Oregon are two of 23 states, along with Washington, D.C., that have been sued by the Department of Justice for rebuffing requests for voter data. All states are led by Democrats, or were lost by President Trump in the 2020 election.
The DOJ has argued that it needs unfettered access to the state voter lists to determine whether states are maintaining their voter lists in accordance with federal law. State officials from both major political parties, however, have noted that the federal government has never had access to this data before, and expressed worries about what else the federal government could use the data for.