Judge finds Congress reserved voter-roll authority to states
A federal judge ruled Friday that the Trump Justice Department’s policy of collecting states’ unredacted voter rolls and comparing them against a federal immigration database was unlawful, finding the policy has removed United States citizens from the voter rolls in their home states.
In a 78-page ruling, US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said the department’s list-maintenance policy, adopted to comply with President Donald Trump’s election-integrity executive order, violated privacy laws and risked disenfranchising voters.
“The Court vacates a policy that has removed United States citizens from the voter rolls in their home states and risks disenfranchising many more–a policy that flies in the face of duly enacted laws designed to protect Americans,” Sooknanan wrote.
Sooknanan said the policy not only violated federal laws but that the Justice Department lacked the authority to enact it because Congress gave states the authority to maintain their voter rolls.
“Behind all the window dressing, the challenged policy represents the federal government’s attempt to decide who gets to vote,” Sooknanan wrote. “But Congress has left that authority where our Constitution has always placed it: with the states.”
The judge wrote that her ruling “does not prevent the federal government from taking lawful steps to support states’ efforts to maintain accurate voter rolls” and did not prevent states from maintaining their own.
Sooknanan previously ruled against the administration in June, limiting the administration’s ability to create a database of Americans’ information. The US Supreme Court later temporarily set aside her decision.