A federal judge in Georgia dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit Wednesday that sought the state's complete voter rolls, including unredacted birthdates, addresses and driver's license numbers, delivering another defeat to the Trump administration's nationwide push for sensitive voter data. The ruling keeps Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office from having to turn over confidential voter information it had refused to share for months.
U.S. District Judge Victoria Marie Calvert found that neither the National Voter Registration Act nor the Help America Vote Act requires state election authorities to disclose sensitive, confidential voter information to federal agencies, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. As detailed by CBS News Atlanta, Calvert wrote that there is no explicit manifestation of Congress's intent to preempt states' voter privacy laws, and the case also confirmed that Title III of the Civil Rights Act applied to public records rather than all voter records and did not supersede Georgia's voter privacy regulations.
Raffensperger Held the Line on Private Data
Per the same CBS News Atlanta account, Raffensperger argued the DOJ's request violated Georgia law requiring that data collected about voters remain confidential, and his office maintained the state's voter lists while sharing updated voter files with other states and the District of Columbia as part of routine interstate maintenance. He declined the federal government's demand for complete voter information but offered the public version of Georgia's voter roll in December, along with details on how the state removes ineligible or outdated registrations, the outlet reported.
In her dismissal order, Calvert also noted that Georgia had repeatedly offered that public voter list, available for a standard fee, and affirmed that even if voter rolls fell under Civil Rights Act inspection provisions, the public file would fully satisfy statutory requirements, according to Democracy Docket. Raffensperger has been blunt about where he stands, saying, “I will always protect the sensitive personal information of Georgians, in accordance with the law and the Constitution,” and adding, “I will not give in and break the law for anyone. Period,” per CBS News Atlanta's reporting.
A Winless Streak for the Justice Department
Georgia's case ranked as the 26th of 30 lawsuits the Trump administration has lost in its effort to obtain complete voting lists, per CBS News Atlanta, with cases still pending in Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho and Utah. The Justice Department has said states are violating federal law by refusing to provide voter lists and information, and the administration has characterized the broader lawsuits as an effort to ensure election security.
At least 12 states, including Texas, Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana and Wyoming, voluntarily complied with the Justice Department's requests for voter files, while 30 states and Washington, D.C., resisted and faced federal lawsuits, according to the ACLU.
Local Coalition Joined the Fight
Civil rights coalition Black Voters Matter Fund, alongside two Georgia labor unions, intervened in the federal lawsuit in early 2026, filing formal motions to dismiss to protect voters' private identifying information from federal acquisition, according to Democracy Docket's case tracker. A previous DOJ lawsuit against Georgia had already been dismissed without prejudice in January 2026 after it was filed in the Macon federal judicial district, when it should have been filed in Atlanta, per CBS News Atlanta's account.
The case's path to Judge Calvert's courtroom involved its own drama. U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross recused herself from the litigation in June 2026 after the Justice Department raised bias concerns over her attendance at a political event for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, according to Law and Crime News, which led to the case being reassigned to Calvert.
Georgia's Own Numbers on Roll Maintenance
Underscoring the state's compliance argument, Georgia election authorities canceled nearly 471,000 outdated or ineligible voter registrations in 2025 during routine list-maintenance operations, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Raffensperger also published an editorial in that paper calling the Justice Department's attempt to force the surrender of private voter data reckless and an illegal breach of state sovereignty.
Georgia's outcome fits a pattern playing out across the country. Federal district judges in states including California, Michigan, Colorado, Vermont and Washington had all rejected DOJ demands for unredacted voter rolls before Georgia's dismissal, establishing what Democracy Docket described as an unbroken record of judicial losses for the federal government — a trend Hoodline has tracked in Denver's own rejection of a similar DOJ suit. Voting rights groups including Common Cause, CREW, Protect Democracy and the ACLU filed a separate federal lawsuit in April 2026 to block the Justice Department from compiling state voter files into a centralized national database, according to Protect Democracy. With cases still pending in a handful of states, it remains to be seen whether the administration will pursue the fight further at the Supreme Court.
