Cybersecurity Policy Report, Citing Privacy Act, Federal Judge Orders DoJ to End Collection of State’s Voter Data, (Oct 13, 2026)
A Trump administration policy that requires state election officials to turn over voter registration data is a violation of the 1974 Privacy Act and other federal laws, according to a federal judge who ruled Friday that the policy must end.
“The Defendants, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Attorney General, insist that DOJ has the statutory authority to adopt this policy. But their claimed sources of authority raise eyebrows,” said Judge Sparkle Sooknanan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
“DOJ cannot run roughshod over longstanding laws that were carefully crafted to protect the rights of the American people. The Civil Rights Division’s policy is unlawful in several respects,” Judge Sooknanan said in her ruling.
“First, the Defendants’ claimed authorities—Civil Rights Act of 1960, the National Voter Registration Act, and the Help America Vote Act—do not authorize the policy. Second, the policy is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act,” she said.
“Third, the policy violates both substantive and procedural protections in the Privacy Act, a statute designed to ban federal data banks and preserve the American tradition of limited, transparent government,” she added.
Judge Sooknanan’s ruling requires DoJ to stop collecting and using voter data, even data submitted voluntarily by 18 states, and to stop sharing the data with the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies (Common Cause, et al., v. U.S. Department of Justice, et al., No. 1:26-cv-01352 (D.D.C. Apr. 21, 2026)).
“Today’s decision does not prevent the federal government from taking lawful steps to support states’ efforts to maintain accurate voter rolls. Neither does it prevent states from maintaining their own voter rolls. And to state the obvious, the Court’s decision does not pave the way for ineligible voters to vote in our elections,” she said.
The Trump administration’s effort to obtain unredacted voter registration information has been challenged in district courts nationwide, all of which have ruled that the data-collection was unlawful (CPR, Aug. 18).
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