The Justice Department (DOJ) faced its 18th consecutive loss in its efforts to obtain unredacted state voter rolls, as U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi dismissed the lawsuit against New Jersey on July 30, 2026. This ruling follows the state's recent admission that approximately 6,600 noncitizens were illegally registered to vote due to a software error. Judge Quraishi granted New Jersey's motion to dismiss and denied the DOJ's request for access to the state's complete voter registration database, which includes sensitive personal information.
The DOJ plans to appeal the decision, which Judge Quraishi stated aligns with previous rulings from at least sixteen other district courts. The judge noted that the registration error had no impact on the legality of the DOJ's request for the unredacted database. The DOJ's initial request for New Jersey's full voter list was made in July 2025, as part of a nationwide effort to review election records. State officials had provided a version of the voter rolls but withheld personal information due to privacy concerns.
In his ruling, Judge Quraishi explained that Title III of the Civil Rights Act applies only to records that election officials possess, not to documents created by the state itself. He described the DOJ's position as untenable, citing conflicts between federal laws regarding voter list maintenance and the preservation of covered records. The litigation will proceed, with the DOJ conducting a separate review into the 6,600 improper registrations and seeking identifying information about those affected, a request that New Jersey officials have rejected.