Judge strikes down DOJ's policy of reviewing state voter rolls

A federal judge in Washington has thrown out the Justice Department's program of collecting state voter lists and checking them against federal citizenship and immigration databases. U. S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued the 78-page decision on Friday, handing the Trump administration a setback as the midterm elections approach, according to CBS News.

The judge found that the department lacks legal authority to demand the lists, run the comparison and press states to purge people it deems ineligible. She also concluded the approach violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Privacy Act, and noted the federal data may be inaccurate. In her view, the program had already pushed American citizens off the rolls and threatened to do so for more, while Congress left the power over voting with the states. She stressed that the ruling does not stop lawful federal help to states or allow ineligible people to vote. It covers files already handed over and those still contested in court.

Eighteen states fully complied with the department's requests, and CBS News found the department has lost nearly all its suits against the rest. Common Cause and individual voters brought this case, and the group's chief executive, Virginia Kase Solomón, welcomed the outcome.

Summarized by PolitiKool from CBS News’s reporting. Read the full story at CBS News →