Trump's own appointed judge shuts down DOJ bid to seize voter data

A federal judge dealt a bruising blow to the Trump administration's aggressive voter data collection campaign Tuesday, shutting down the Justice Department's effort to pry personal information from Michigan election officials.

U.S. District Judge Hala Jarbou, chief judge for the Western District of Michigan and a Trump appointee herself, sided with Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and other state officials in dismissing the lawsuit, NBC News reported.

In a sweeping 23-page order, Jarbou ruled that federal voting laws don't require states to hand over voter registration lists.

The Justice Department had demanded names, birth dates, addresses, driver's license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers for all Michigan voters, claiming it needed the sensitive data to prevent election fraud. Michigan refused, agreeing only to share publicly available information, prompting the DOJ to sue.

Jarbou's order systematically dismantled the government's legal arguments, citing the Help America Vote Act, National Voter Registration Act, and Civil Rights Act.

“As explained below, the Court concludes that (1) HAVA does not require the disclosure of any records, (2) the NVRA does not require the disclosure of voter registration lists because they are not records concerning the implementation of list maintenance procedures, and (3) the CRA does not require the disclosure of voter registration lists because they are not documents that come into the possession of election officials," the judge said.

Federal judges in California and Oregon reached similar conclusions recently, dealing successive setbacks to the administration's sweeping voter data initiative across 23 states plus Washington, D.C.