Justice Department Ran ‘Roughshod’ over Civil Rights with Plans to Audit State Voter Rolls, Judge Says
The ruling said the Justice Department downplayed the risk of wrongly removing eligible voters, with Common Cause challenging the practice in a 78-page decision.
- On Friday, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan blocked the Department of Justice from using the federal SAVE immigration database to audit state voter rolls, ruling the administration lacked legal authority to direct state purges.
- President Donald Trump's administration prioritized identifying non-citizen voters, reflecting his long-standing election fraud beliefs and a broader push to insert the federal government into state election administration.
- Sooknanan wrote that the DOJ's arguments would "subvert" the 1960 Civil Rights Act; she joined 25 other district judges in finding the agency lacked power to mandate that states "clean" rolls within 45 days.
- Common Cause President Virginia Kase Solom called the ruling "victory for voters and yet another loss for the Department of Justice," urging the administration to stop seizing private voter data.
- Federal election law prohibits systematic voter roll reviews in the 90 days before federal elections, potentially limiting this ruling's impact on the upcoming November 3 midterms.
13 Articles
13 Articles
Judge strikes down DOJ's effort to cleanse state voter rolls of noncitizens
The Justice Department's campaign to get ahold of state voter registration lists, run them through federal databases to identify noncitizens, then prod the states to boot those people from their rolls is illegal, a federal judge ruled Friday.
Justice Department ran ‘roughshod’ over civil rights with plans to audit state voter rolls, judge says
By Tierney Sneed, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge accused the Justice Department of trying to subvert civil rights laws with a voter roll audit plan that would run “roughshod over longstanding laws that were carefully crafted to protect the rights of the American people.”The new ruling from US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan halts the
A U.S. judge decided on Friday (9) that it is illegal for the Department of Justice to obtain lists of state voters and cross them with a federal immigration database to demand the exclusion of persons deemed ineligible to vote. The decision of federal judge Sparkle Sooknanan represents the latest setback in President Donald Trump's attempt to extend federal control over the organization of the elections on the eve of the November 3 legislative …
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