Federal judge blocks Trump DOJ access to Oregon voter rolls
A federal judge in Oregon ruled against a Trump administration request to view the state's unredacted voter rolls on Monday.
Judge Mustafa Kasubhai said he plans to dismiss the Justice Department lawsuit and will file a final written opinion in the coming days. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield hailed Monday's ruling, arguing the DOJ was seeking a "backdoor" to grab Oregon residents' personal information.
"The court dismissed this case because the federal government never met the legal standard to get these records in the first place," Rayfield told NBC News in a statement. "Oregonians deserve to know that voting laws can’t be used as a backdoor to grab their personal information."
President Donald Trump's administration has filed lawsuits seeking voter registration data in at least 23 states. The lawsuits request access to names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz this weekend laying out steps to quell unrest in the state, with turning over voter data being listed among them.
"You and your office must restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota," Bondi wrote. "Fortunately, there are common sense solutions to these problems that I hope we can accomplish together."
One of Bondi's requests was that Minnesota state officials give the DOJ Civil Rights Division access to voter registration lists. Basic voter registration lists, also known as voter rolls, are typically publicly accessible, but the DOJ has demanded from Minnesota and many other states a wealth of sensitive data associated with the voter rolls that Minnesota has resisted giving up.
Democrats framed her letter as a nefarious bargain designed to affect the battleground state’s elections.
"‘ICE will leave Minnesota if you hand over your voter rolls’ tells you everything you need to know.… It was always about rigging elections," Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., wrote on X.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., misstated on X that Bondi’s letter said ICE would "leave if the state turns over its voter database to Trump."
Murphy said the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota was a "pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states."
In a federal court hearing Monday over ICE's broader operations, Lindsey Middlecamp, a lawyer for Minnesota, argued to a judge that Bondi’s letter sounded like a coercive "ransom note."
Fox News' Ashley Oliver contributed to this report.