The Trump administration's request for Minnesota voter rolls has been blocked in federal court.
U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Menendez has dismissed the Justice Department's lawsuit demanding access to the state's unredacted voter registration list containing private citizen data.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon called the decision a "relief to Minnesotans" , highlighting similar legal defeats the administration has faced nationwide over voter roll requests.
“My responsibility to Minnesota voters starts and ends with the law," Simon said in a statement. "The private data entrusted to my office does not belong to the federal government, and I’m pleased that the judge agreed. This ruling should be a relief to Minnesotans, as it was to residents in the 21 other states plus the District of Columbia where the DOJ has lost in court in its sweeping attempt to collect voters’ private information.”
The government has sued more than two dozen states to obtain unredacted copies of their complete voter registration lists. Some states have agreed to provide the requested information to the government but others, including Minnesota, have not.
"The government suggests it is permitted to use a civil action as a 'fishing expedition.' But an ordinary litigant isn’t allowed to seek discovery first and allege a claim later, and the federal government has no special privilege to do so either," Menendez wrote in the ruling.
This ruling follows several others across the U.S. which have all dismissed the DOJ lawsuits, with 23 states having the suit dismissed so far.
The Justice Department has reached a settlement with one state, Oklahoma, with the state agreeing to provide its sensitive voter data in exchange for the Justice Department dismissing the lawsuit.
And at least 13 states have either provided or promised to hand over their voter registration lists to the government, according to the Brennan Center for Justice and Associated Press reporting: Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.
It's still unclear if federal authorities will appeal this latest ruling. The Justice Department has appealed a number of the earlier dismissals already.
