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DOJ sued Wisconsin to compel voter data after bipartisan elections commission refused as unlawful

On December 18, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the State of Wisconsin in federal court in Madison, seeking the state's full voter-registration list -- including voters' full names, dates of birth, addresses and driver's license numbers -- a week after the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission voted against the request, with both Republican and Democratic commissioners saying compliance would be illegal under state law. The suit was one of four DOJ filed that day, also against Illinois, Georgia, and the District of Columbia, bringing DOJ's nationwide total to 22 such lawsuits.

Part of: Trump DOJ Campaign to Collect State Voter Rolls

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Wisconsin

Abuses documented

Actors

On December 18, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the State of Wisconsin in federal court in Madison for refusing to turn over the state's full voter-registration roll -- including voters' full names, dates of birth, residential addresses, and driver's license numbers -- to the Trump administration. The suit came one week after the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission voted against DOJ's request, with both Republican and Democratic commissioners saying compliance would be illegal under Wisconsin law. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said DOJ should be "serving the interests of the American people, not chasing conspiracy theories," adding that "Wisconsin's elections are fair and conducted with integrity."

The Wisconsin suit was filed the same day as parallel DOJ suits against Illinois, Georgia, and the District of Columbia, bringing the department's nationwide total to 22 such lawsuits; an Associated Press tally found DOJ had by then sought voter-registration data from at least 26 states, and had sued Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Nevada the week before. DOJ said 10 states were either in full compliance or working toward it.

Updates

2026-05-21 -- Federal judge dismissed DOJ's lawsuit [4]

U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson dismissed DOJ's suit, ruling that its claim the Wisconsin Elections Commission violated the Civil Rights Act by withholding the voter roll "fails as a matter of law."

2026-06-14 -- DOJ appealed to the Seventh Circuit, sought expedited review [5]

DOJ's Civil Rights Division filed an emergency motion appealing the dismissal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, seeking expedited consideration before Wisconsin's August 11 primary and November 3 general elections.

2026-06-26 -- Seventh Circuit denied DOJ's request for expedited review [6]

The Seventh Circuit denied DOJ's emergency motion, leaving the appeal to proceed on the standard appellate timeline rather than before Wisconsin's 2026 elections.

Why we recorded this

Election administration is primarily a state function, and voters' driver's-license numbers and dates of birth are sensitive data a state may lawfully decline to hand over to federal investigators absent a showing of need. DOJ sued Wisconsin for withholding that data a week after the state's bipartisan elections commission -- Republican and Democratic commissioners alike -- voted that complying would violate state law, one of four suits DOJ filed that day as part of a nationwide campaign that had by then reached 22 such lawsuits. This archive records the case because compelling a state to surrender individually identifying data on every registered voter, over a bipartisan finding that doing so would break the state's own law, is the kind of federal data demand the Fourth Amendment's individualized-suspicion requirement exists to check, regardless of which party controls the state being sued.

Sources

  1. US Justice Department sues Wisconsin over voter data request — Associated Press (via WTMJ) primary accessed September 15, 2026
  2. President Donald Trump's Justice Department sues Illinois over sensitive state voter data — Chicago Tribune secondary accessed September 15, 2026
  3. Trump administration sues Wisconsin over denial of voter data — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel secondary accessed September 15, 2026
  4. Court dismisses Trump administration lawsuit for Wisconsin voter roll — Votebeat primary accessed September 15, 2026
  5. DOJ appeals ruling on Wisconsin voter data access — Wisconsin Law Journal primary accessed September 15, 2026
  6. Federal Appeals Court Again Rejects U.S. DOJ on Wisconsin Voter Rolls — Urban Milwaukee secondary accessed September 15, 2026

See also