ACLU Suit Against DOJ National Voter Database Proceeds as 12 States Comply Voluntarily, Courts Dismiss 5 State Challenges

The ACLU and Protect Democracy’s suit on behalf of Common Cause and four individual voters to block DOJ’s national voter surveillance-and-purge database is proceeding toward a ruling, with new numbers clarifying the fight’s scope: of all 50 states DOJ demanded confidential voter data from, 12 have complied voluntarily, while federal courts in Michigan, Oregon, California, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island have dismissed DOJ’s own suits seeking to compel data from resistant states. Competing summary-judgment motions — plaintiffs filed May 19, DOJ’s counter-motion June 2 — remain pending, with a ruling likely before the November 2026 midterms.

This is a status update on the suit this corpus first captured at filing (2026-07-15–aclu-sues-doj-national-voter-database-nvra-blackout-deadline), following the broader DOJ voter-data campaign that began with 18-state lawsuits demanding Social Security numbers and driver’s license data (2025-12-12–doj-expands-voter-data-lawsuits-to-18-states) and the Sixth Circuit’s first appellate loss for DOJ on Michigan voter rolls (2026-06-24–sixth-circuit-doj-first-appellate-loss-voter-rolls-michigan). The 12-complied/5-dismissed split maps a genuine partisan and judicial fault line months ahead of the midterms this database could be used to influence.