Federal Court Rejects Trump Administration Attempt to Obtain Illinois’ Sensitive Voter Data
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 1, 2026
CONTACT:
Kenny Colston, Common Cause
kcolston@commoncause.org | 502.214.3732
Ella Wiley, ACLU
ewiley@aclu.org | 925-819-0555
Ed Yohnka, ACLU of Illinois
eyohnka@aclu-il.org | 847.687.1129
Zindy Marquez , Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
zmarquez@clccrul.org | 312.202.3657
Federal Court Rejects Trump Administration Attempt to Obtain Illinois’ Sensitive Voter Data
Court ruling mirrors others in various states blocking DOJ efforts to overreach
CHICAGO, IL: A federal judge in the Central District of Illinois ruled Friday that Illinois is not required to share sensitive registered voter data with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), finding that the government’s broad demand for Illinois’ voters confidential information runs afoul of federal law.
This decision marks the 19th consecutive federal court ruling nationwide rejecting the DOJ’s attempts to capture unredacted state voter rolls.
The ruling stems from a December 2025 lawsuit—United States v. Matthews—filed after the Illinois State Board of Elections refused to turn over its unredacted voter registration file, a file that contains sensitive personal data about millions of Illinois residents including each individual’s full name, date of birth, address, driver’s license number and partial Social Security number. Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Common Cause, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and three Illinois voters—Pablo Mendoza, Brian Beals, and Alejandra Ibañez—moved to intervene in the case, a motion that was granted.
These clients are represented by Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, the ACLU National Voting Rights Project and the ACLU of Illinois.
“This victory makes it 19-0 in stopping the federal government from seizing your private voter data,” said Maryam Jazini Dorcheh, Vice President of Litigation at Common Cause. “The record is clear: states run elections —not the president. We won’t stop fighting to protect voters’ privacy.”
"The entire premise for this lawsuit is the myth of massive noncitizen voter fraud -- a canard that has been repeatedly debunked even by supporters of this administration," said Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR). "We are pleased that the court saw through this ruse and dismissed the case."
“Today’s ruling is a critical victory for the privacy rights of every Illinois voter,” said Ami Gandhi, Director of the Midwest Voting Rights Program with Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. “The federal government's attempt to seize sensitive personal records was an unprecedented overreach designed to intimidate voters and fuel false narratives about our election systems. By rejecting this demand, the court has sent a clear message that our democratic process will not be weaponized to harass or suppress Illinois voters, particularly naturalized citizens and people returning home from incarceration who are disproportionately targeted by these efforts.”
“We are grateful to the Court for rejecting the Trump Administration's efforts to meddle in our State’s elections and create a nationwide database that can be used to harass voters,” added Kevin Fee, Legal Director at the ACLU of Illinois. “We must continue to fight the Administration’s lies about supposed voter fraud, and its attempt to suppress voting by sowing doubt and confusion about our elections. This case is one part of that fight.”
“This ruling is another decisive rejection of the federal government’s attempts to bypass its limits of power,” said Ethan Herenstein, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “The Trump administration cannot manufacture a voter fraud crisis to justify a sweeping up of sensitive personal information from millions of Americans.”
Read the court’s order dismissing the DOJ lawsuit here.
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