Overview
- The Justice Department issued a new Office of Legal Counsel opinion on Tuesday and immediately filed it as supplemental authority in its Sixth Circuit fight over Michigan’s voter list.
- The opinion, which does not bind courts, argues Section 303 of the Civil Rights Act lets DOJ require unredacted statewide registration rolls and share them with Homeland Security to check voter eligibility.
- Federal judges in California, Oregon, Michigan, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Arizona have ruled that DOJ lacks statutory authority to force states to hand over the data.
- The records sought include home addresses, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers, and advocates warn DHS database checks could wrongly flag naturalized citizens as ineligible.
- DOJ has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., to obtain the lists, and while dozens have resisted, at least 13 Republican-led states have voluntarily provided their full voter rolls.