Power Grab/Decide who gets to vote and who counts it
A federal judge dismisses DOJ’s suit for Georgia’s unredacted voter rolls, the department’s 26th straight loss
— A judge dismisses DOJ's suit for Georgia's voter rolls, its 26th straight loss.
The department began suing 30 states in 2025 and has not won once. On October 9, a second judge struck down the nationwide program behind the suits.
What happened
On September 30, 2026, Judge Victoria Calvert in Atlanta dismissed the Justice Department’s suit against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for the state’s full voter list. The list included driver’s license and Social Security numbers and full dates of birth. The department had said it needed them to find noncitizens and check list maintenance.
Calvert ruled that Title III of the Civil Rights Act does not preempt Georgia’s privacy law, and that neither the National Voter Registration Act nor the Help America Vote Act requires disclosure. The states, Republican and Democratic, said federal law does not require it and their own privacy laws forbid it.
It was the department’s 26th consecutive loss in the 30-state campaign that began in 2025, with no wins. The Sixth Circuit had earlier refused rehearing en banc in Michigan’s case. Attorney General Todd Blanche and Civil Rights chief Harmeet Dhillon have said a Supreme Court appeal is “a possibility.”
On October 9, Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington vacated the program itself, which the department internally called its “list maintenance project.” She ruled that demanding unredacted state voter rolls, checking them against federal data and pressing states to remove the voters it flagged violates federal laws governing how agencies collect and control personal data. At least 18 states had already handed over their files. The department said it was reviewing the ruling.
Who benefited
Voters in 30 states keep their Social Security and license numbers in state hands. State officials, many of them Republicans, who refused to turn the data over have been upheld by every court to rule.
Who wanted something
The administration wanted a national voter file assembled from state records to run against immigration databases. The civil route to it has failed completely.
Who lost out
The Justice Department lost in court, 26 times. Outside court it has moved to subpoenas, litigation-hold letters threatening criminal sanctions, and ICE’s purchase of voter records from other sources, so the practical loss is smaller than the scoreboard.
Why it matters
The Justice Department has not won one of its voter-roll cases, and the demand did not stop when it lost. Zero for 26 is the measure of what the courts have done on this front. The demand changed form, to subpoenas, hold letters and data purchases.
Sources Fox 5 AtlantaGeorgia RecorderDemocracy DocketU.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (via Justia) (primary)Democracy DocketThe Washington Sun
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