Trump DOJ appeals latest wave of losses in languishing voter roll crusade

The Department of Justice appealed three more voter roll losses Monday, ensuring that every defeat in President Donald Trump’s nationwide campaign to obtain unredacted state voter data is now in or headed to the federal appeals courts.

The new appeals come from Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, where federal judges recently rejected DOJ lawsuits seeking sensitive voter registration data from state election officials.

DOJ appealed its Maryland loss to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals after a federal judge denied the department’s motion to compel and granted Maryland’s motion to dismiss on June 18. The department appealed its Pennsylvania loss to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals after Chief Judge Cathy Bissoon dismissed that lawsuit on June 27. And DOJ appealed its New Hampshire loss to the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a federal judge dismissed the case on June 29.

The filings mark the latest escalation in DOJ’s voter roll crusade, even as courts continue to reject the department’s legal theory.

DOJ is now 0-11 in district court voter roll cases and 0-1 in appeals court, with no court ordering a state to turn over unredacted statewide voter rolls.

The department has lost in California, Oregon, Michigan, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Arizona, Maine, Wisconsin, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. With Monday’s filings, DOJ has appealed all 11 district court losses. It has also indicated that it will seek en banc review — review by the full appeals court — after the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Michigan’s win last month.

That Sixth Circuit ruling was DOJ’s first appellate defeat in the voter roll cases. The appeals court held that Michigan’s statewide voter registration list was not a record DOJ could force the state to produce under Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

In Kentucky, which is also in the Sixth Circuit, DOJ has already asked a federal judge to hold off on ruling while it seeks full-court review of the Michigan decision. DOJ wrote that granting en banc review would “vacate the panel’s decision and restore the case as a pending appeal.”

The latest appeals also come after DOJ had already taken its earlier losses to appellate courts.

Monday’s appeals came just hours after the First Circuit Court of Appeals declined DOJ’s request to fast-track its voter roll appeals in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine. Instead of adopting the department’s proposed expedited schedule, the court ordered a standard briefing schedule, slowing DOJ’s effort to revive those cases before the National Voter Registration Act’s 90-day quiet period, which generally prohibits systematic voter purges close to a federal election.

By early June, the department had appealed losses in Maine and Wisconsin, after federal judges in California, Oregon, Michigan, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Arizona, Wisconsin and Maine had all rejected similar lawsuits.

The cases stem from DOJ’s effort to force states to provide unredacted voter registration lists, including sensitive personal information such as dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license and Social Security numbers. State officials and voting rights groups have argued that the demands exceed DOJ’s authority and threaten voter privacy.

Every court to rule on the issue has agreed that DOJ’s campaign is meritless. The department is now asking appeals courts across the country to give it what no district court has so far: a win.