Cybersecurity Policy Report, Courts Continue to Reject DoJ’s Demands for States’ Unredacted Voter Data, (Aug 17, 2026)

By Tom Leithauser

A Department of Justice demand for an unredacted voter list containing Nevada voters’ personal information was dismissed on Friday by the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. DoJ also lost a bid for an en banc review of a similar setback in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Cincinnati).

DoJ filed the Nevada suit after Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar (D.) provided voter registration data with Social Security, driver’s license numbers, and other personal information redacted. Secretary Aguilar told the DoJ that the redacted information it sought “was confidential, not a public record, and subject to careful security measures under Nevada law,” District Judge Anne Traum noted in her decision (United States of America v. Francisco V. Aguilar, et al., No. 3:25-cv-00728 (D. Nev. Dec. 11, 2025)).

DoJ’s Civil Rights Division has been requesting unredacted voter registration data from states and suing election officials who resist. DoJ claims the Civil Rights Act (CRA) and other election laws empower it to obtain the voter registration data, but more than 20 federal courts have rejected that argument.

“Only records or papers subject to [CRA] Section 20701’s retention requirement can be compelled, and recent decisions—including, most prominently, a decision by the Sixth Circuit—have determined that voter registration lists are not records subject to retention and preservation under Section 20701,” Judge Traum said.

“The Government has not met its obligation to provide a basis for its demand,” the judge added, citing letters sent to Secretary Aguilar by DoJ’s Civil Rights Division. “[N]either letter purported to allege facts showing a need for an investigation into Nevada’s state election system.”

Mr. Aguilar said the ruling was “a victory for Nevada voters and their right to have their sensitive personal information protected.”

“Nevada is now the 22nd consecutive state or jurisdiction to prevail in federal district court against the Trump administration’s effort to force states to turn over their unredacted voter rolls,” he said in a news release. “Nevada will continue maintaining accurate voter rolls, administering secure elections and protecting the personal information voters entrust to us.”

DoJ has demanded unredacted voter data from 48 states and the District of Columbia and has sued 30 states that refused. It hasn’t won a case yet (CPR, Aug. 7).

DoJ was handed another loss on Friday when the Sixth Circuit denied its request for an en banc review of a decision by a three-judge panel that ruled against DoJ’s request for unredacted voter records from the state of Michigan.

Despite DoJ’s string of losses in these voter data cases, the department’s Office of Legal Counsel insisted in May that federal and state privacy laws didn’t outweigh the department’s authority to obtain states’ unredacted voter data (CPR, May 14).

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