DOJ sued Arizona and Connecticut to compel release of unredacted, sensitive voter roll data

On January 6, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division filed federal lawsuits against Arizona and Connecticut, seeking court orders compelling both states to produce their complete, unredacted voter registration lists -- including voters' full birthdates and full or partial Social Security and driver's license numbers. DOJ said the suits brought its nationwide total to 23 states plus the District of Columbia, and that 13 states were voluntarily complying with the same request. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said "any state that fails to meet this basic obligation of transparency can expect to see us in court," while Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said accurate voter rolls were necessary to ensure "American citizens' votes count only once, and only with other eligible voters."

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said he had rejected three separate DOJ requests for the data, most recently on December 19, 2025, citing Arizona voters' "important privacy rights that cannot be infringed because they choose to exercise their constitutionally protected voting rights." After the suit was filed, Fontes posted a video responding to a Justice Department lawyer's social-media posts about the case, telling the lawyer to "pound sand." Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas said her state follows the law "to ensure voters can participate without fear that their information will be misused or exposed." DOJ invoked the Civil Rights Act of 1960, along with the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, as authority for the demand -- the same legal theory it had by then used against dozens of other states, in a campaign election officials and voting-rights groups said appeared aimed at building a national voter file.

Updates

2026-04-28 — Federal judge dismissed DOJ's Arizona lawsuit [4]

U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich dismissed DOJ's suit against Arizona, ruling that none of the three federal laws DOJ cited -- the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the National Voter Registration Act, and the Help America Vote Act -- required Arizona to disclose the unredacted data. Fontes and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said the ruling "vindicates" the state's refusal to comply.

2026-06-03 — DOJ appealed the Arizona dismissal to the Ninth Circuit [6]

DOJ filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, challenging Judge Brnovich's dismissal of its lawsuit seeking Arizona's unredacted voter data.

2026-06-23 — Ninth Circuit paused DOJ's Arizona appeal [7]

The Ninth Circuit granted a joint request by DOJ and Arizona to hold the appeal pending decisions in two similar cases, United States v. Oregon and United States v. Weber, which DOJ said present "substantially the same legal issues" and would govern the Arizona appeal as binding circuit precedent.

2026-07-17 — Federal judge dismissed DOJ's Connecticut lawsuit [5]

U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley dismissed DOJ's suit against Connecticut, finding that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 does not authorize DOJ to demand a statewide voter registration list created by the Secretary of State. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong called the suit "an illegal attempt to disenfranchise Connecticut voters."