DOJ Voter-Roll Lawsuits

Beginning in September 2025, the Justice Department sued more than two dozen states and state election officials that refused to hand over their statewide voter-registration lists and list-maintenance procedures, records the department said it needed to check voter rolls against the federal SAVE immigration database for noncitizen registrations. The suits are the litigation arm of the administration's election-integrity executive order. Federal judges appointed by presidents of both parties have repeatedly dismissed the demands, holding that the Constitution gives states primary responsibility for running federal elections and that no federal voting law compels production of the records. As of August 2026 the department had lost 21 of these cases and won none at the district level; it has appealed 16 losses and lost the first appeal to reach decision (the Sixth Circuit upheld dismissal of the Michigan suit on June 24, 2026). Several cases remain pending.