Appeals Court Blocks Justice Department Bid for Michigan Voter Data

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Michigan is not required to hand over unredacted voter registration records to the Justice Department. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel found that Title III of the 1960 Civil Rights Act does not authorize the department to compel states to produce the full voter file.

The records include dates of birth, partial Social Security numbers, and driver’s license numbers for every registered voter in the state.

Mathis wrote the majority opinion, joined by Senior Judge R. Guy Cole. Judge John Nalbandian dissented. The panel held that the department had not specified the “basis and purpose” of its request as required by the statute. Mathis noted that the provision was originally intended to investigate voting discrimination, not to identify ineligible voters.

““Back then, the government used this power to ensure that everyone who had the right to vote could freely exercise that right. But today, the government invokes Title III for an inverse purpose — to ensure that some people have not voted.””

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson provided the public version of the statewide voter list but declined to release additional data. A lower court had already ruled against the department’s request. The Justice Department has filed similar lawsuits against 30 states and the District of Columbia.

Cases against California, Oregon, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Arizona, Wisconsin, Maine, and Maryland have also been dismissed at the district court level. Nine district court judges have previously ruled against the administration’s requests for unredacted voter rolls.

The department has said it intends to compare the lists against a Department of Homeland Security citizenship verification system that states may already access voluntarily. The ruling is the latest in a series of court decisions limiting federal efforts to obtain state voter data ahead of the November midterms.