Court dismisses lawsuit seeking to prevent misuse of seized Fulton County voter data

In a loss for voters, a federal judge Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to stop the Trump administration from misusing sensitive voter information seized from Fulton County, Georgia — denying voters potential safeguards against voter purges and other improper uses of the data.

U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee granted the Department of Justice’s motion to dismiss the case, which was brought by the NAACP, its Georgia and Atlanta affiliates, the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda and two Fulton County voters. 

The groups asked the court to restrict the government’s use of information contained in more than 600 boxes of 2020 election records the FBI seized in January.

The lawsuit relied on Rule 41(g) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which allows people harmed by a government seizure to ask a court to return property. 

The voters and civil rights groups did not seek the return of the records. Instead, they asked Boulee to limit how the government could use them.

“In sum, the plain language of Rule 41(g) compels the Court to conclude that the Rule can support injunctive relief when that relief is ancillary to — or necessary to effectuate — a request for return of property,” Boulee wrote. “But where, as here, the movant only requests injunctive relief without a request to return the property, Rule 41(g) simply does not apply.”

The dismissal was without prejudice, meaning the case was not resolved on the merits and the plaintiffs are not necessarily barred from pursuing their claims through another legal route.

Importantly, Boulee did not rule that the federal government may use the records for voter purges, immigration enforcement or other purposes the groups sought to prohibit.

The groups warned in their February filing that unrestricted federal access to the seized records threatened voter privacy and could chill participation in elections.

“The government’s seizure of sensitive voter data without restrictions on how the government may use it jeopardizes the security of Movants’ constitutional rights,” the groups wrote. “The seizure without limitation on use chills Movants’ fundamental right to vote, including by potential exposure of voters’ election choices and the risk of misuse of sensitive voter data for other ends.”

The FBI seized the Fulton County records in January under a search warrant tied to a federal investigation of the 2020 election. Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, has for years been the focus of false claims by Trump and his allies that widespread fraud cost him Georgia in 2020.

Georgia’s presidential results were counted three times, with each count confirming Joe Biden’s victory.

Wednesday’s ruling leaves the voter protections sought in this lawsuit unavailable for now. The federal government continues to possess the seized election records, while the groups’ requested restrictions on how that data may be used were never reached on their underlying merits.