Trump’s quest for a national voter database just ran into a brick wall known as ‘the law’

A federal court in Washington, D.C., ruled last Friday that the push by President Donald Trump's Justice Department to obtain state voter rolls was unlawful from the outset, according to an MS NOW opinion column by Justin Levitt, a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division. The court found the department lacked authority to demand the files and also broke federal law when states handed them over voluntarily, because it never published the notice the Privacy Act of 1974 requires. Levitt argues the findings point toward criminal violations by someone at the department. The Justice Department says it is reviewing the decision.

The ruling caps a losing run. Beginning in September 2025, the department sued nearly every state that refused to comply, and trial courts have decided 26 of those cases against it, with one appeal also lost. At least 18 states gave data voluntarily.

Levitt says the department leaned on a 1983 notice about civil rights investigations, which the court rejected. He expects little effect on the midterms, since most states withheld their files, but says the lawbreaking still matters.

Summarized by PolitiKool from MS NOW’s reporting. Read the full story at MS NOW →