Overview
- U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Providence rejected the Justice Department’s request on Friday, marking a fifth loss after setbacks in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Oregon.
- The judge said the department lacked authority under the National Voter Registration Act and Help America Vote Act and offered no factual basis under the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
- The Rhode Island demand sought unredacted records for nearly 750,000 voters, including driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.
- The Trump administration has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., for similar files, and only Oklahoma has agreed in a settlement to provide the data.
- Rhode Island’s secretary of state offered the public voter list but withheld sensitive identifiers under state privacy law, and DOJ officials said they aimed to flag duplicate or deceased registrants and ask Homeland Security to confirm citizenship.