Right-wing lawsuit seeking Wisconsin voter rolls booted by federal appeals court

By Jen Rice

Voters mark their ballots while voting at Centennial Hall at the Milwaukee Central Library on Election Day Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)

A right-wing legal group is not entitled to access Wisconsin’s new voter registration lists, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.

The panel of three federal judges — all appointed by Republican presidents — said a district judge was correct to reject arguments brought by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), a conservative firm with a prolific record of filing voter purge lawsuits across the country. 

The judges said PILF made “two novel legal theories,” neither of which had merit.

“As a threshold matter, both legal theories concern the rights of the states. But the Foundation isn’t trying to vindicate states’ rights,” the judges concluded. “Quite the contrary: It has deployed these legal theories against Wisconsin’s interests.”

The lawsuit was filed in 2024 against Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) Administrator Meagan Wolfe challenging Wisconsin’s exemption from a provision in the National Voter Registration Act that requires states to allow public inspection of voter list maintenance records. Wisconsin is exempt because it allows same day voter registration at polling places.

PILF argued that this exemption treats Wisconsin differently than other states, and asked the court to invalidate the exemption and order the WEC to produce the state’s official voter registration list. 

The district court dismissed the case in 2024, and PILF appealed it to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.