Michigan appeals court blocks DOJ bid for unredacted voter rolls

A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked the Justice Department from getting Michigan’s unredacted voter rolls, handing the Trump administration its first appellate loss in a nationwide push for state election records. The 2-1 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati left in place U.S. District Judge Hala Jarbou’s February 10 dismissal of the federal lawsuit in Grand Rapids.

The case turned on whether Washington could force Michigan to turn over the full electronic voter list, including dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. Michigan argued that the rolls were created by the state and were not covered by the Civil Rights Act provision the Justice Department cited. The 6th Circuit majority agreed that the law was aimed at preserving records received from voters, not state-created voter files.

Judge John B. Nalbandian dissented. The majority ruling is now binding precedent for the Justice Department’s pending voter-roll case in Kentucky, placing the administration’s next court fight in the same circuit that just rebuffed it in Michigan.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson framed the decision as a defense of voter privacy and the rule of law, while the Michigan Attorney General’s Office emphasized that the federal lawsuit sought sensitive personal information belonging to millions of voters. The dispute has become a test of how far the federal government can go in trying to police voter eligibility through state-maintained records without overrunning state control of election administration.

The broader campaign has already spread across the country. The Justice Department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C. over voter-registration data demands, and the Brennan Center for Justice said nine of those lawsuits had been dismissed as of Wednesday. At least 48 states and Washington, D.C. received requests for statewide voter registration lists, and at least 16 states either provided or said they would provide their full statewide lists to the department.

The ruling gives states a stronger foothold in resisting demands for unredacted files that contain personal identifiers beyond basic registration data. It also narrows the administration’s path as it presses a national strategy built on state records, privacy fights and claims of voter-roll cleanup heading into the next election cycle.