A federal judge on Friday dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Utah Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson seeking Utah’s full voter list, including sensitive personal data. The ruling ends, for now, the Trump administration’s attempt to force Henderson to hand it over.
U.S. District Judge David Barlow granted motions to dismiss filed by Henderson, the NAACP and the League of Women Voters of Utah.
The dispute began last year, when the department demanded the state’s unredacted voter list, including partial Social Security numbers or driver’s license numbers. When Henderson only offered to provide information that was publicly available, the DOJ sued.
The DOJ claimed the Civil Rights Act of 1960 requires election officers to preserve voter registration records that “come into” their possession and gives the attorney general the authority to demand copies. The department argued that this meant Henderson had to turn over the statewide list.
Barlow disagreed. Henderson’s office doesn’t receive the list from anywhere, he wrote. Under Utah law, her office develops, manages and maintains it, and “come into possession” means acquiring something from elsewhere.
“An ordinary English speaker would not say that she has come into possession of something that she created, established, and maintained,” Barlow wrote, quoting the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That court rejected a similar Justice Department suit seeking Michigan’s voter rolls.
The ruling came a day after the department told Henderson it would send election monitors to Utah for the November midterms.
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Henderson praised the ruling in a statement posted to social media.
"We appreciate Judge Barlow’s ruling dismissing the Department of Justice’s lawsuit that sought to force us to disclose the private data of every Utah voter. Our office will continue to uphold the rule of law and safeguard the fundamental right to free, fair, and secure elections for the people of Utah," Henderson said.
Friday's decision is the 27th time federal courts rejected similar lawsuits filed by the DOJ this year.
The DOJ can appeal the decision to the 10th Circuit in Denver, where it's already appealing losses in Colorado and New Mexico.
