Judge bars Justice Department from taking Utah voter files
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, preventing the administration from accessing private voter data days before the midterms.
By Petra Murphy ·
Utah voters will keep their personal details private for now after a federal judge blocked the Justice Department from seizing the state’s voter database. The ruling on Friday stopped the administration from obtaining names, birthdays, addresses, and partial identification numbers for every registered voter in the state.
District Judge David Barlow dismissed the case brought against Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson. Henderson is the state’s top election official and a Republican. The Justice Department had sought to compel her to hand over the complete list of Utah voters. The requested data included driver's license numbers or the last four digits of Social Security numbers.
This defeat marks one of more than 25 losses for the Trump administration in voter-roll litigation since it began its campaign to address alleged illegal voting. A DOJ spokeswoman confirmed the department would appeal the decision. She noted that the only appellate court to review similar issues had split on largely partisan grounds.
The government argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 requires officials to make voting records available for federal inspection if they come into their possession. Barlow rejected this interpretation. He cited a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stating that an ordinary English speaker would not say a person has come into possession of something they created and maintained.
The DOJ countered that the law’s purpose was to serve as an enforcement tool for federal election laws. They argued it made little sense to exclude the statewide database used for voter-list maintenance. Barlow rejected this view, writing that judges have no warrant to elevate vague invocations of statutory purpose over the words Congress chose.
Barlow dismissed the complaint with prejudice. This means the Justice Department cannot simply refile the same claim, although it can still appeal to a higher court. Trump appointed Barlow to the federal bench in 2019. He previously served as a Republican congressional lawyer, a federal prosecutor, and a private attorney.
Henderson praised the ruling on social media, stating her office would continue to uphold the rule of law. The administration has charged individuals with illegal voting but has yet to find evidence of widespread fraud. The DOJ still has three pending cases in Hawaii, Idaho, and Delaware, and is appealing losses in California and Oregon.
