Common Cause v. Department of Justice

Summary

In March of 2025 Trump signed a controversial executive order with many provisions, one including provisions for the full unredacted voter rolls for 49 states and Washington D.C. These voter rolls contain personal information about voters that should not be handed over to the federal government. The administration intended to compare the voter roles to the SAVE database, which is notoriously inaccurate and has repeatedly flagged citizens as ineligible to vote, in an attempt to suspend “non-citizens” voting rights.

On October 9, 2026, a federal court sided with Common Cause, and against the DOJ. They affirmed that the federal government should not be accessing personal voter information. Stating that the federal government had “defi(ed) federal law”.

Impact

The demanding of voter roles by the Trump Administration represents just one of many tactics the administration has used to try and disrupt the upcoming November elections, and although this malicious attempt was struck down it doesn’t mean the others will not also be.

Sources

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/federal-court-sides-voters-ruling-doj-data-demands-violate-voter-privacy-states-election-authority https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/25/supreme-court-trump-citizen-voter-database