WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal court dismissed the Department of Justice’s lawsuit seeking Maryland’s complete statewide voter registration list, marking the latest defeat in the Trump administration’s nationwide campaign to seize sensitive voter data from states. The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland granted defendants’ motions to dismiss, including a motion to dismiss filed by Elias Law Group attorneys on behalf of the Maryland/DC Alliance for Retired Americans.
In December 2025, President Trump’s Department of Justice filed a lawsuit seeking to compel Maryland to turn over its full, unredacted voter rolls, including registrants’ full names, dates of birth, residential addresses, and either driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. The lawsuit was one of 30 nearly identical lawsuits the DOJ has filed against states and the District of Columbia.
No court has sided with the DOJ in any of these cases. Federal courts have now dismissed nine of the lawsuits, including eight cases in which voters and civic organizations represented by Elias Law Group served as intervenor-defendants.
In a 10-page order granting the motions to dismiss, U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher wrote that the Trump Administration’s interpretation of the Civil Rights Act would produce an “absurd result” by effectively criminalizing the alteration of a statewide voter registration list, which states are required to alter under the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.
“This ruling is another resounding rejection of the Justice Department’s attempt to vacuum up the private information of millions of voters,” said Elias Law Group partner Uzoma Nkwonta. “The court saw this demand for exactly what it is: a federal overreach with no basis in the law, dressed up as an effort to protect election integrity. We are proud to stand with the Maryland/DC Alliance for Retired Americans, and we will keep fighting these baseless demands wherever they are brought. We cannot allow the Trump Administration to amass a nationwide voter database that can be used to disenfranchise voters and subvert free and fair elections.”
Click HERE to read the full order.
Elias Law Group has moved to intervene on behalf of voters and pro-voting organizations in every voter data lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice.
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