Voters in Grand Rapids, Michigan cast their ballots during the August 2024 state primary election (Photo by Matt Vasilogambros/Stateline)
A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the Justice Department does not have authority to access sensitive personal information about Michigan voters, a setback in President Donald Trump’s bid to take control of the state’s elections.
The decision brings the country closer to a potential U.S. Supreme Court fight over state-by-state voter rolls ahead of November’s midterm elections, with Michigan at the center.
The Trump administration has sued 30 states for copies of their voter information. Federal officials want to run the data through a Department of Homeland Security computer program to identify potential non-citizen voters.
IN by a 2-1 decisionA three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was not required to turn over sensitive voter information, including voters’ dates of birth, driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers. The Sixth Court is the first appellate court to hear voter roll lawsuits following a series of district court rulings against the Justice Department.
The Department of Justice requested Michigan’s voter rolls under the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which gives the U.S. attorney general broad access to documents and records “in the possession of” election officials. Congress passed a bill authorizing investigations into voting discrimination against black citizens.
The lower court affirmed
Wednesday’s opinion confirmed that: February’s decision by U.S. District Court Judge Hala Jarbou, a Trump appointee in the Western District of Michigan, who ruled that the Justice Department had no right to voter records. Michigan’s voter registration database is a record created by state officials, not a document that comes into their possession, she argued.
The appellate judges agreed, writing that making the state’s full voter rolls dependent on the Civil Rights Act would put Michigan officials on a “collision course” with the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, two federal laws that require states to maintain and update voter registration lists.
The Civil Rights Act “directs election officials to retain and preserve certain records and documents that come into their possession, and the NVRA and HAVA direct election officials to remove ineligible voters from statewide voter registration rolls,” Justice Andre B. Mathis, an appointee of President Joe Biden, wrote in the majority opinion.
“We should not adopt an interpretation that would place election officials at odds with one federal law in an attempt to comply with another,” Mathis added.
One member of the appeals panel, Judge John B. Nalbandian, a Trump appointee, wrote in a dissent that Michigan’s voter rolls constitute a record that the Justice Department can demand under the Civil Rights Act. He argued that requiring Michigan to turn over the data would not conflict with NVRA and HAVA.
Justice Department sees ‘carve out’
While oral presentations in MayThe Justice Department suggested that upholding the district court’s decision would weaken its ability to investigate racial discrimination in voting. Justice Department attorney David Goldman told the panel that the district court judge had created a “carve out” in the Civil Rights Act that was not rooted in the law.
But Michigan Deputy Attorney General Heather Meingast, representing Benson, told the justices that the Justice Department’s request is unprecedented and unsupported by federal law.
“It doesn’t seem to meet the requirements of the Civil Rights Act of the 1960s.” Meingast said. “The goal was for voters to return documents, applications and poll taxes.”
The Department of Justice has been maintaining state voter rolls for more than a year. Although some Republican-led states voluntarily turned over data, most states resisted, leading to a wave of lawsuits. So far, no court has ruled in favor of the Justice Department.
Justice Department lawyers said voter information would be shared with the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE), a computer program that originally checked individual immigrants’ eligibility for government benefits, which the Trump administration turned into a citizenship verification tool.
On Monday, a federal judge in Washington ruled that the changes to SAVE were made illegally and that the Trump administration violated privacy millions of Americans. The judge also noted that problems had been identified in the SAVE program, including false reporting by citizens.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Justice Department lawyers can ask the full bench of the 6th Circuit Court or the Supreme Court to hear the case.
“The law couldn’t be clearer – states hold elections, the federal government has no right to the personal information of Michigan voters, and the president cannot change election laws with the stroke of a pen,” Benson said in a statement.
