Poli Alert Politics & Civics
Related Articles
A federal district judge has dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit demanding Maryland voter registration records, what state officials derided as a “fishing expedition” for sensitive personal information on voters.
The order by U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher noted that eight courts have ruled against the government in every ruling so far in other states. Her order said she “joins every court to have addressed this issue in concluding that an SVRL [statewide voter registration list] is not a record or paper that a state must produce to the United States” under the Civil Rights Act.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request Monday for a comment on the ruling. But Maryland State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis, who has been fighting the Justice Department for almost a year on the issue, said he was “very pleased” with Gallagher’s order.
“The State Board of Elections is transparent and open about its processes and voter registration,” DeMarinis said in an interview Monday. “This fishing expedition by the DOJ, courts saw through it and they [DOJ] were not forthright as to what their reasons behind asking for over 4.3 million records on voters that include sensitive information. I feel vindicated in my decisions.”
Gallagher’s order was handed down Thursday, a week after state and federal attorneys argued over the Justice Department’s demands.
The department first wrote to the state on July 14, asking for the voter registration list and “all fields contained in the list,” according to Gallagher’s order. Those record contain several pieces of personally identifying information, including voters’ birth dates, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
DeMarinis resisted, telling the department it could obtain publicly available voter registration its own and refusing to turn over the data. In August, he asked the department to justify its request, which Justice officials said was to determine the state’s “compliance with the list maintenance requirements” of the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.
When the records were not forthcoming, the Justice Department sued Maryland, one of 30 lawsuits seeking to compel states to turn over the records.
The Justice Department argued that federal law allows it the right to demand the records under the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
Gallagher disagreed. She noted that the Civil Rights Act carried penalties for anyone who altered records, but the other two acts the federal government cited specifically requires states to constantly update their records.
“The United States’s proposed interpretation of the CRA would therefore criminalize the same conduct that the NVRA and HAVA require,” Gallagher’s decision reads. Interpreting the law as the Justice Department proposed would produce “an absurd result,” she wrote.
No other court has ruled in favor of the administration, with courts dismissing eight of the lawsuits before Gallagher’s order. About half a dozen of these lawsuits are under appeal, according to a University of Wisconsin Law School website tracking the Trump administration’s effort to obtain the voting data nationally.
In a statement Monday, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown welcomed the ruling, saying the database included sensitive information that “Marylanders have a right to keep private.”
“With today’s ruling, Maryland’s federal court has added its voice to the unanimous chorus of judges who have said states do not have to follow the Trump Administration’s demand to turn over their unredacted voter registration databases.
In a post to X on Monday morning, DeMarinis said protecting voter privacy is a “top priority and will be vigorously protected” by the state elections board.
A joint statement from advocacy organizations that had joined the case in support of the state called Gallagher’s decision a “victory” for state residents who want to exercise their right to vote. The statement was released by the American Civil Liberties Union, Common Cause and Out for Justice Inc., which intervened in the case, and the Caucus of African American Leaders.
“The DOJ sought access to some of the most sensitive information Maryland voters possess while refusing to explain why it needed that data or what it planned to do with it, in an effort to intimidate eligible voters and build an unprecedented and unlawful national voter database,” the joint statement read.
“We will continue fighting efforts by the federal government to weaponize voter data that threatens voter privacy, chills participation, and undermines trust in our democracy,” it said.
By Mayah Nachman, News From The States
Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected].
