DOJ's voter roll crusade hits a courthouse wall

Federal judges have handed the Trump administration a series of legal losses in its effort to obtain voter information from states. The Justice Department has sued more than thirty states and the District of Columbia, seeking driver's license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers from voter rolls. This push is part of the administration's broader voting initiatives, Axios reports. But judges appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents have consistently rejected the DOJ's legal argument. Most recently, a federal judge — a George W. Bush appointee — dismissed the case against Colorado, ruling that the administration lacked that authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1960. So far, federal judges have sided against the DOJ in at least twenty cases. A California judge called the request unprecedented and illegal. Another in Rhode Island termed it a fishing expedition. The administration has obtained some voter files through other channels, but its court-based strategy has stalled.

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