A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the Trump Justice Department strayed beyond the bounds of federal law when it demanded Michigan turn over its state voter registration list.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest in a string of decisions — though it is the highest court yet — to rebuke the DOJ’s push for voter records.
In a 2-1 ruling, the court said the voter list, though compiling registration records submitted to the state, was created by the Secretary of State’s office. That put it beyond the reach of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which allows DOJ to demand a look at any records that “come into … possession” of state election officials.
The majority also said DOJ failed to give Jocelyn Benson, the state’s top election official, a valid reason why it needed to look at the records.
“Because the government did not comply with its mandatory statutory obligation to submit a demand to Benson containing a statement of both the basis and purpose of its request, Benson did not violate Title III by refusing to produce the unredacted qualified voter file,” Judge Andre Mathis, a Biden appointee, wrote.
He was joined by Judge Guy Cole Jr., a Clinton appointee.
Dissenting was Judge John Nalbandian, a Trump pick, who said he believes the state’s voter list does fall under the Civil Rights Act’s reach because it’s a compilation of documents that did “come into Bendon’s possession.”
And, he said, the feds did offer enough of a basis for needing the records to satisfy the law.
Michigan is one of the 30 states the DOJ has sued after its initial request for voter lists was denied.
Nine district judges have issued substantive rulings, and the Trump administration has lost each of those. One case was settled.
A number of the cases are being appealed, though the 6th Circuit is the first to rule.
The matter is likely to make its way to the Supreme Court.
At issue is the civil rights-era law, enacted to give the U.S. attorney general power to review states’ voting records to investigate Jim Crow restrictions.
Judge Mathis, though, said the Trump administration is turning the law upside down.
“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,” he opined.
Trump officials counter that they are trying to prod states to cleanse their rolls of deceased, ineligible and noncitizen voters.
The effort suffered another blow earlier this week when a federal judge ruled the administration illegally expanded use of a Homeland Security database, the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system, to check voters’ citizenship.
The SAVE system was to be used to run states’ voter lists.
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