The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has a responsibility to protect Americans’ freedom to vote, but recent actions by the DOJ — taken at the behest of President Donald Trump and other members of his administration — are now threatening that very freedom.
Beginning in the spring of 2025, the DOJ embarked on a sweeping effort to demand highly sensitive voter information — including dates of birth, partial social security numbers and driver’s license numbers — from almost every U.S. state. When states and election officials refused, the DOJ sued more than half of all states and Washington, D.C., for access to this data.
These demands are about far more than access to voters’ sensitive information. They are part of the Trump administration’s dangerous and misguided attempt to assert authority over elections that it does not have. The Constitution is clear: The states and Congress have the power to set the rules around our elections, not the president or the executive branch — including the DOJ.
The administration’s overreach will not make our elections any safer or more secure; instead, it will violate voters’ privacy and discourage voters from participating in the democratic process. That’s why Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has been litigating and advocating in states across the country to put an end to this unlawful activity, as well as sounding the alarm about the threats posed by the DOJ under a second Trump administration.
Why is this happening?
The Trump administration and its allies are launching a multi-pronged attack on our elections to make it more difficult for Americans to make their voices heard and to lay the groundwork for calling the results of the 2026 midterms into question.
The evidence of the Trump administration’s push to maintain power by controlling who can vote in our elections is abundant: The president has publicly called for our elections to be “federalized,” despite control of elections belonging to Congress and the states. While Congress may pass statutes concerning federal elections, such as the Voting Rights Act, the president is attempting to centralize federal power in the executive branch.
President Trump has signed two executive orders aiming to unlawfully change the rules governing our elections. One of those orders has largely been blocked by the courts, and the other is currently being challenged. At the same time, the administration has repeatedly used the DOJ to escalate the president’s anti-voter agenda.
The DOJ is pressuring states to sign agreements that would require them to remove voters from the voter rolls flagged as ineligible by the federal government, even though eligible voters would almost certainly be caught up in such purges. The DOJ even sent a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz at the start of 2026 with several demands, including access to the state’s unredacted voter rolls, and suggested that compliance with the demand was a condition of removing federal immigration law enforcement officers from the Minneapolis area.
Even as President Trump seeks to exercise unlawful control over mail-in voting through his most recent elections executive order, the DOJ has also advanced a legal argument opposing the counting of mail‑in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive afterward, a practice is authorized by many states.
If adopted, this policy would undermine voters’ rights. As CLC pointed out in our amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, this would particularly impact military families who rely on mail delivery timelines outside their control.
Taken together, these actions reveal a coordinated effort to collect data on millions of Americans and exert unprecedented executive branch influence over state-run elections.
What is being done to stop this?
Campaign Legal Center is fighting on behalf of the American people in courtrooms across the country to stop this attempted voter data grab. Our actions in more than 10 states include:
- In Maine, Campaign Legal Center and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law successfully intervened and filed a motion to dismiss on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Maine. On May 22, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in a victory for voters;
- In New York, Campaign Legal Center and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law have filed a motion to intervene and a motion to dismiss on behalf of the League of Women of New York State;
- In Vermont, Campaign Legal Center successfully intervened and filed a motion to dismiss alongside the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law on behalf of Vermont Public Interest Research Group;
- In Washington, Campaign Legal Center filed a motion to intervene with the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law on behalf of Common Cause and Washington Conservation Action Education Fund;
- In Oregon, Campaign Legal Center filed two amicus briefs on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Oregon in the district court and in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals;
- In New Hampshire, Campaign Legal Center filed an amicus brief on behalf of the ACLU of New Hampshire and the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire;
- In West Virginia, Campaign Legal Center filed a motion to intervene on behalf of WV Citizen Action Group; In Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky and Washington D.C., Campaign Legal Center filed amicus briefs with the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law;
- In California, Campaign Legal Center filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit alongside the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and Democracy Defenders Fund, on behalf of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC);
- In Michigan, Campaign Legal Center, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and Goodman Acker, P.C. filed an amicus brief on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Michigan in the Sixth Circuit.
In each of these cases, our argument is clear: The DOJ does not have the authority it is asserting. The department is attempting to collect sensitive voter data without adhering to state and federal protections for voters’ data, or to limitations on its own power. The U.S. Constitution clearly gives the power to regulate and administer elections to the states and Congress, not the executive branch. These actions by the DOJ trample on our government’s separation of powers and system of federalism.
Federal district courts in Oregon, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, Arizona, Wisconsin and Maine have already dismissed lawsuits in these states seeking voter records, a victory for voters and the rule of law. We hope that other courts do the same. The fight to protect voters’ privacy and uphold the constitutional balance of power is far from over.
Our democracy depends on election systems that are free from political coercion and grounded in transparency, fairness and respect for the rule of law. Campaign Legal Center will continue to defend these principles in court. Support our work today.