Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Voter Data Transfer to DHS
A federal judge in Washington D.C. has declared the Trump administration's efforts to obtain and transfer sensitive personal voter information from states to the Department of Homeland Security illegal. The judge ruled that the Justice Department's actions, which included pressuring…
Sioux Falls, SD, October 13, 2026 — A federal judge in Washington D.C. has ruled against the Trump administration’s initiative to collect and transfer sensitive personal voter information from various states to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The court’s decision determined that these actions were illegal, marking a significant legal setback for the administration’s broader data collection efforts.
According to the ruling, the Justice Department’s methods, which involved pressuring states to provide voter data and subsequently sharing this information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), were found to be in violation of the Privacy Act. The judge also determined that these actions improperly usurped the authority of states over their own election processes.
While the administration did succeed in obtaining voter data from some states as part of this initiative, the court’s judgment invalidates the legal basis for such transfers and the manner in which the data was pursued and utilized. The specific details regarding which states provided data or the exact scope of the data transferred were not detailed in the summary provided.
The ruling underscores a legal challenge to federal agencies’ attempts to access and use sensitive voter information, emphasizing the importance of state control over election administration and the protection of personal data under existing privacy laws.
Story summarized from the original created by Jonathan Shorman on southdakotasearchlight.com, see more information here.
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