ST. PAUL, Minnesota — A federal judge dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking Minnesota’s voter-registration data, marking the latest defeat in a nationwide Trump administration effort to force states to turn over sensitive voter information.
The Justice Department sued Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon after he refused to provide a voter list containing names, birthdates, addresses and partial Social Security numbers. Simon argued the request was unusually broad and lacked a clear legal justification.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez rejected the government’s case, writing that DOJ appeared to be seeking discovery before establishing a valid claim.
“The government suggests it is permitted to use a civil action as a ‘fishing expedition,’” Menendez wrote. She added that ordinary litigants cannot seek evidence first and develop a legal theory later, and that the federal government has no special privilege to do so.
The ruling adds Minnesota to a long list of states where similar federal lawsuits have been dismissed. According to Route Fifty, the Justice Department is now 0-23 in these cases.
The administration has justified its voter-data push as an election-integrity effort, but it comes amid President Donald Trump’s continued false claims that widespread voter fraud affects U.S. elections. Documented illegal voting remains rare.
A recent ProPublica investigation found that federal authorities subpoenaed about 130 people in Minnesota as part of a high-priority illegal-voting investigation, but only one case had been referred for prosecution.
The Minnesota ruling further weakens the administration’s effort to centralize access to voter-roll information maintained by the states.
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