A federal judge on Thursday sided with Maine, dismissing a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice seeking data about Maine voters.
The lawsuit was part of the Trump administration’s push for a national voter list. Maine and 29 other states refused on grounds that the U.S. Constitution grants states the authority to run elections. The Justice Department subsequently brought lawsuits against the 30 states asking the courts to compel secretaries of state to turn over the records.
Chief U.S. District Judge Lance Walker in his ruling affirmed that “states are the primary regulators and administrators of elections for federal office, unless Congress passes legislation that preempts that framework. And Congress’s power to do even that is itself subject to limitations.”
Wednesday’s ruling is the eighth in which a judge has sided with states, including Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, according to the Maine secretary of state’s office.
