美国上诉法院驳回特朗普政府要求密歇根州移交选民名册的诉求

US appeals court rejects Trump bid to force Michigan to hand over voter rolls

2026-06-24 7:12 PM UTC / Reuters

By Luc Cohen

June 24, 2026 7:12 PM UTC Updated 7 mins ago

United States Department of Justice logo and U.S. flag are seen in this illustration taken April 23, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

• Michigan judge had blocked DOJ’s demand for unredacted voter rolls
• Trump administration has sued dozens of states seeking lists of voters
• Voting rights advocates say naturalized citizens could be disenfranchised

June 24 (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld a court ​order blocking the Justice Department from obtaining Michigan’s voter rolls, dealing a blow to the Trump administration’s push ‌to boost the federal government’s role in elections.

The decision from the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes as President Donald Trump’s Republicans are locked in a tight battle to maintain control of both houses of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections.

Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

The U.S. Constitution assigns individual ​states the responsibility of administering federal elections, though the federal government has some oversight authority. Trump, who maintains ​his false claim that his 2020 election loss was due to fraud, has long asserted that ⁠states are not doing enough to prevent ineligible people from casting ballots. He has said Republicans should “nationalize” and “take over” ​voting.

STATES CITE VOTERS’ PRIVACY RIGHTS

Starting last year, the Justice Department sent letters to election officials in nearly all 50 states seeking ​access to their voter lists, including sensitive identifying information like partial social security numbers, driver’s license numbers and dates of birth.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

At least 17 Republican-led states voluntarily shared the data. Dozens more states, including several led by Republicans, have resisted, in many cases arguing that sharing the information ​would violate their citizens’ privacy rights.

The Justice Department has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia to try to ​force them to turn over their rolls, arguing it needs the unredacted lists to determine whether the states are doing enough to remove ‌ineligible ⁠voters from their rolls.

The Justice Department has so far lost each case that has been decided at the trial court level.

DOJ CITED CIVIL RIGHTS ACT

In the Michigan case, U.S. District Judge Hala Jarbou said the voter rolls were not among the documents that the federal government had the right to demand from states under the Civil Rights Act of 1960. The law, ​passed to combat racial discrimination ​at a time when ⁠Southern states were destroying Black Americans’ voter registration records to cover up disenfranchisement, requires states to preserve such records.

blob:https://www.reuters.com/feaf4245-9dd5-4101-be5d-87e9cf0c6eab

Ad Break Coming Up!

NEXT Stay Next Off English 180p 288p 360p 480p 540p 576p 720p HD 1080p HD Auto (180p)About Connatix V479214101 About Connatix V479214101 1/1 Skip Ad Continue watching after the ad!

Visit Advertiser websiteGO TO PAGE

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-appeals-court-rejects-trump-bid-force-michigan-hand-over-voter-rolls-2026-06-24/

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-appeals-court-rejects-trump-bid-force-michigan-hand-over-voter-rolls-2026-06-24/

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-appeals-court-rejects-trump-bid-force-michigan-hand-over-voter-rolls-2026-06-24/

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-appeals-court-rejects-trump-bid-force-michigan-hand-over-voter-rolls-2026-06-24/

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-appeals-court-rejects-trump-bid-force-michigan-hand-over-voter-rolls-2026-06-24/

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-appeals-court-rejects-trump-bid-force-michigan-hand-over-voter-rolls-2026-06-24/

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-appeals-court-rejects-trump-bid-force-michigan-hand-over-voter-rolls-2026-06-24/

In appealing the case, the Justice Department called Jarbou’s reading of the law “novel ​and incorrect.”

Lawyers for Michigan said Jarbou correctly distinguished between materials voters submit to the state, ​which they ⁠said the federal government may demand, and records like voter rolls created by the state itself, which they said were not covered by the Civil Rights Act.

Jarbou was appointed by Trump during his first term.

Voting rights activists have expressed concern that the Trump ⁠administration is ​seeking to compare states’ voter rolls with other sources of data to ​purge people it believes are not citizens. They say that risks disenfranchising some voters because those data sources may not have up-to-date information on whether ​previously ineligible immigrants have since become naturalized citizens.

Advertisement · Scroll to continue

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Bill Berkrot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.