Judge strikes down DOJ's effort to cleanse state voter rolls of noncitizens
- Federal judge blocks DOJ from scrubbing state voter rolls for noncitizens.
- Court rules DOJ’s reliance on error-prone SAVE database violates privacy laws.
- Biden appointee slams DOJ for turning Civil Rights division into a voter-cancellation machine.
- DOJ’s record now 0-for-20 in legal battles over state registration data access.
Brief Summary
A federal judge has slammed the brakes on the Justice Department’s aggressive push to audit state voter rolls, ruling that the feds lack the authority to dictate who stays on the list. U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan shredded the DOJ’s strategy, noting that the federal databases used to flag 'noncitizens' are notoriously glitchy and have repeatedly misidentified legal, naturalized citizens as ineligible voters. The ruling effectively tells the DOJ to stay in its lane and respect the constitutional authority of states to manage their own electoral rolls.
Why This Matters
This ruling sets a major precedent for the tug-of-war between federal oversight and state sovereignty in elections. If you’ve ever worried about the federal government overstepping its bounds to police your local registration status, this decision protects that process from being centralized in Washington. It signals that the courts are currently unwilling to let federal agencies bypass privacy laws or use flawed data to disenfranchise voters, meaning your local registration status remains a state-level concern for the foreseeable future.