Trump’s DOJ Voluntarily Dismisses Case Challenging Virginia’s Voter Purge Program
President Donald Trump’s U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) voluntarily dismissed a lawsuit challenging Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) voter purge program that targeted the registrations of naturalized citizens and other eligible voters on the eve of the 2024 general election.
Yesterday’s dismissal comes less than four months after former President Joe Biden’s DOJ filed suit alongside private advocacy groups arguing that the purge program runs afoul of the National Voter Registration (NVRA) — part of which bars states from systematically removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election.
Just a few weeks prior to the 2024 general election, a Trump-appointed federal judge preliminarily blocked Youngkin’s program for likely violating the NVRA and ordered election officials to restore to the voter rolls approximately 1,600 individuals whose registrations were canceled or marked as inactive.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently declined the commonwealth’s request to pause the district court’s injunction, but the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority ultimately reinstated the purge program without explanation a mere six days prior to the election.
Throughout his campaign, Trump made it abundantly clear that his administration would reshape the Justice Department in his image — transforming it from an independent entity tasked with upholding the rule of law into a politicized body that will defend the executive branch’s extra-legal actions and go after so-called “enemies.”
In a recent op-ed, right-wing attorney and Project 2025 author Hans von Spakovsky specifically called on the DOJ to dismiss its suits “against the states of Virginia and Alabama for removing aliens from voter rolls…immediately with prejudice.”
“DOJ’s claim that such action is barred by the National Voter Registration Act is wrong and a misinterpretation of the law. And its Criminal Division should ask those states for the files on those aliens for investigation and possible prosecution,” von Spakovsky added.
But as the Biden DOJ and private advocacy groups underscored in court filings, Virginia’s purge program was based on a flawed methodology that involved removing purported noncitizens based on outdated and often inaccurate citizenship data from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
A hearing on Virginia officials’ motion to dismiss the consolidated lawsuit that involved both the DOJ and private organizations’ claims was set by the district court for Friday, Jan. 31. However, in light of the DOJ’s recent move to end its participation in the litigation, three private organizations — the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights, League of Women Voters of Virginia and League of Women Voters of Virginia Education Fund — will be left on their own to argue that the case should proceed.
Trump’s DOJ has not yet moved to dismiss a similar lawsuit brought by the Civil Rights Division in conjunction with a case from private litigants challenging Alabama’s program to purge alleged noncitizens. As in the Virginia case, a Trump-appointed federal judge temporarily halted the program for likely violating the NVRA’s 90-day “quiet period.”
Given the similarities between the Virginia and Alabama cases, a dismissal of the Alabama case by the DOJ is likely forthcoming.
In addition to disengaging from ongoing cases that aim to enforce federal voting rights statutes, the DOJ indicated last week in a memo that the Civil Rights Division would halt a majority of its functions more broadly — including a freeze on pursuing new cases, indictments or settlements.
What’s more, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate is poised to confirm Trump’s nominee to lead the Civil Rights Division, Harmeet Dhillon, who is an avowed election denier with a track record of defending voter suppression laws. Under Dhillon’s leadership, further dismissals of cases as well as changes in the division’s prior legal positions are expected.
According to Democracy Docket’s litigation database, Dhillon — or an attorney from her law firm — has been involved in more than a dozen different lawsuits over the past few years to defend positions that are hostile to voting rights and favorable to Trump and the GOP.