DOJ is 0-15 after GOP-appointed judges toss voter roll lawsuits against Virginia, New Mexico

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) lost its 14th and 15th voter roll cases Tuesday, when federal judges dismissed* the government’s lawsuits seeking access to Virginia and New Mexico’s full voter records. 

To add insult to injury, the judge in the Virginia case was a Trump appointee. In his decision, U.S. District Judge Roderick Young concluded that federal law does not require Virginia to provide its unredacted voter rolls to the federal government. 

That makes Young, whom the president nominated to the bench during his first term, the sixth Trump appointee to rule against the DOJ in its nationwide quest for sensitive voter data.

The same day, U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera, appointed by former President George W. Bush, tossed the DOJ’s case against New Mexico, ruling that the department failed to sufficiently establish “the basis and the purpose” for the demand, as required by federal law.

The DOJ sued Virginia in January after Elections Commissioner Susan Beals refused to turn over the state’s complete, unredacted statewide voter registration records, including voters’ full names, addresses and either their driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. 

The department sued New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver a month earlier, also for refusing to turn over her state’s complete voter files.

The DOJ has filed parallel lawsuits in 30 states and Washington D.C. as part of a politically-charged national effort to bolster Trump’s unfounded claims of widespread illegal voting.

While many GOP-controlled states acceded to the department’s unprecedented demands, handing over millions of voters’ sensitive personal information, most states have not complied.  

And when the DOJ has sued for the rolls, it has taken blow after blow in court.

Still, the fight is far from over. Last week, the DOJ filed a petition challenging its first appellate defeat in the voter roll crusade, asking the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a ruling that rejected its demand for Michigan’s voter data.

Not all GOP-controlled states have capitulated. Utah, Idaho, Kentucky and West Virginia have fought back against the request. On Monday, a federal judge tossed out the DOJ’s lawsuit against West Virginia. 

*The Elias Law Group (ELG) is representing defendant-intervenors in both cases. ELG Firm Chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.