On April 17, 2026, U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy — a Trump appointee — dismissed the DOJ's lawsuit against Rhode Island demanding unredacted voter registration data including names, addresses, birthdates, partial Social Security numbers, and driver's license numbers. She called it a “fishing expedition” lacking legal foundation.
This is the DOJ's fifth consecutive loss in voter roll cases. Courts in California, Oregon, Michigan, Massachusetts, and now Rhode Island have all rejected the same legal theory — the DOJ invoking the Civil Rights Act of 1960, a law designed to combat racial discrimination, to demand personal voter data from states. Georgia was also dismissed on procedural grounds.
McElroy wrote the demand “lacks a legally sufficient basis” because it contained “no factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements.” She preemptively rejected DOJ remedies, saying the demand would “remain legally insufficient” even with added explanatory letters.
The DOJ has acknowledged its plan to share unredacted voter data with DHS for “citizenship verification” — effectively building a federal voter surveillance database. Of 30 total lawsuits (29 states plus D.C.), 25 remain pending. Twelve Republican-led states have voluntarily complied.
The pattern: using a civil rights law passed to protect Black voters as a tool to challenge the registration of voters the administration suspects are non-citizens — rejected by five courts, including one run by a Trump appointee.
The losses kept coming. On June 22, 2026, a federal judge in Maryland handed the DOJ its ninth straight defeat, ruling that states need not turn over the voter data the department demanded; five of the nine losses have now come from judges Trump appointed. An NBC News review found that, months before the midterms, the DOJ still cannot substantiate Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud: efforts to prosecute noncitizen voters have stalled for lack of evidence, even as the department, DHS, and intelligence staff stay focused on his grievances.
Update (September 24, 2026): one more federal intervention belongs on this record, and it did not make the news because it never entered the case. On June 11, 2026, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, under Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon and acting Voting Section chief Eric Neff, moved for leave to file a statement of interest supporting Ohio's documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement in Red Wine and Blue v. LaRose, grounding its participation in Executive Order 14248. Judge Solomon Oliver denied leave on June 16 as duplicative and untimely, so the department's argument was never filed. The state litigated on and won a stay from the Sixth Circuit on September 24 that lets the requirement operate for the midterms, on standing, mootness and timing grounds rather than on the merits. The federal government was not a party to that appeal.
Update (October 7, 2026): Utah is one of the states being sued, and one of eight of them with a Republican election chief, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. According to the department's complaint, the Attorney General asked on July 15, 2025 for Utah's full voter list; on July 31 Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson “offered only the publicly available redacted version”; and on August 14 the department demanded an unredacted copy. Utah's public list leaves out Social Security numbers and the names of voters whose information is legally withheld, such as law enforcement officers and domestic violence victims. The department sued on February 26, 2026, in United States v. Henderson, No. 2:26-cv-00166 (D. Utah), alongside suits against Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia and New Jersey. Henderson moved to dismiss in March; there has been no ruling. In May, Utah's own audit confirmed the citizenship of 99.72% of registered voters and found 27 confirmed noncitizens, all of whom came forward and asked to be removed, KSL reported. “That is not a narrative, unfortunately, that the federal government wanted to hear,” Henderson told Utah News Dispatch. Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said, “It is wrong for the DOJ to investigate or threaten the lieutenant governor for carrying out her responsibilities under Utah law” (see The Justice Department Warned Election Officials in All 50 States They Could Be Prosecuted, Then Told Utah's Republican Election Chief She Is 'Under Investigation').
Update (October 17, 2026): ProPublica's tally as of October 16: the department has filed 31 voter-data suits (30 states and the District of Columbia), and judges have ruled against it in all 26 that reached a final ruling; four are pending and one state settled. The 26 judges include eight Trump appointees. West Virginia Judge Thomas Johnston, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote, “Clearly, this demand is devoid of any factual basis.”