Staff Reports
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit just handed states a clear rebuke: the Department of Justice cannot force Michigan to hand over its unredacted voter-registration file. In a 2–1 decision, the panel said the Justice Department stretched Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 far beyond what Congress wrote. That matters for voter privacy, state control of election data, and the limits of federal power.
What the Sixth Circuit actually decided
Judge Andre Mathis wrote the majority opinion and made the bottom line plain: Title III was meant to fight voting discrimination, not to let the federal government seize a state’s entire voter database. The court said the statute’s “narrow text cannot withstand the weight of the government’s broad request.” In short, the DOJ tried to turn a civil-rights tool into a broad search warrant for Michigan’s voter rolls — and the judges said no.
Privacy and state sovereignty won this round
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson refused to hand over the unredacted statewide voter registration list, and the court backed her. That list contains sensitive bits like dates of birth, driver’s-license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers. Forcing states to surrender those identifiers to a federal agency creates big privacy risks and raises real separation-of-powers concerns. Voters should not be treated like data points in a federal fishing expedition.
Election integrity does not justify unlimited federal reach
Look, every reasonable person wants accurate voter rolls. Conservatives have long pushed for clean lists to protect election integrity. But valid ends do not justify lawless means. The DOJ, under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, argued it needed the unredacted lists to check for duplicates, noncitizens, and other problems. The court said the department was using the wrong statute and the wrong approach. If the goal is clean rolls, Congress can write a clear law — not raid state systems under an old civil-rights provision.
What to watch next and why it matters
The decision is the first time an appeals court has weighed in and sided with a state against the DOJ’s push. Expect the department to consider rehearing en banc or taking the case to the Supreme Court. If higher courts side with the Sixth Circuit, it will limit federal demands for state election files nationwide. If they reverse, the federal government will have a much larger hand in state voter data. Either way, voters and state election officials should pay attention — this fight is far from over.
