April 17, 2026 / 3:16 PM EDT / CBS News
Washington — A federal judge on Friday rejected the Justice Department’s effort to force Rhode Island to turn over sensitive, unredacted voter information, dealing another setback to the Trump administration’s attempts to access state voter registration lists.
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, a Trump appointee, granted Rhode Island officials’ request to dismiss the DOJ lawsuit seeking the state’s full voter rolls, which include names, birth dates, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. In a 14-page decision, McElroy called the department’s effort a “fishing expedition” not authorized by federal election laws and denied a motion to compel Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore to hand over the data.
Amore welcomed the ruling, saying it affirms that the Justice Department has no legal right to the state’s private voter information. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states,” he said, adding that the executive branch had been overreaching and that courts would uphold the rule of law.
The decision marks the fifth judicial loss for the Justice Department in its efforts to obtain state voter registration lists. Judges previously dismissed DOJ lawsuits seeking voter data from California, Oregon, Michigan and Massachusetts. The department has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia after officials refused to provide their voter rolls.
The Trump administration has argued it needs the information to ensure compliance with the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, federal laws that require states to maintain accurate voter registration lists. But McElroy wrote that the government’s demand lacked “any factual allegations” suggesting Rhode Island was violating those requirements and said the Attorney General’s demand “does not plausibly relate to individual voting rights.”
The DOJ first sought Rhode Island’s voter list in September. Amore offered the government a copy of the state’s publicly available list but declined to provide unredacted records, arguing the data was private and that the federal statutes cited did not authorize such a demand.
CBS News reported last month that the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security were close to an arrangement to share state voter information so it could be run through a DHS database to check for noncitizen registrants. A government lawyer later acknowledged to the Rhode Island court plans to share the information for immigration and law enforcement purposes.
President Trump has repeatedly claimed noncitizens are voting in U.S. elections, though instances are rare and illegal. He has pushed for legislation, the SAVE America Act, that would require proof of citizenship to register in person for federal elections and implement photo ID for voting; the House approved the plan in February, but it faces obstacles in the Senate. Trump also signed an executive order requiring documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration, but key parts of that directive have been blocked by courts.