Judge blocks fed effort to obtain Utah voter rolls

SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice seeking access to Utah's voter rolls, siding with the state's lieutenant governor.

The ruling, issued Friday by U.S. District Judge David Barlow, is a win for Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, who has pushed back on efforts by President Donald Trump's Justice Department to access sensitive information about voters in the state. Barlow said Utah's voter roll list does not fall under the Civil Rights Act's requirement that some records be made available for inspection by the department.

"Utah's (voter roll list) is not a record or paper which 'comes into (the Utah Lieutenant Governor's) possession,' so she need not make it 'available for inspection, reproduction, or copying' by the attorney general," Barlow wrote, quoting from the law.

Henderson celebrated the ruling, which adds to a string of defeats by Trump's Justice Department seeking similar information from other states.

"We appreciate Judge Barlow's ruling dismissing the Department of Justice's lawsuit that sought to force us to disclose the private data of every Utah voter," she wrote on Threads. "Our office will continue to uphold the rule of law and safeguard the fundamental right to free, fair and secure elections for the people of Utah."

A department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The department sued Henderson in February, alleging she had not complied with a request from last year to turn over the complete voter list, which includes names, dates of birth, addresses and driver's license numbers or the last four digits of Social Security numbers.

Henderson argued she could not legally share the private information and said the department had declined offers from the state to share publicly available voter lists.

Barlow dismissed the case with prejudice. The outcome is not surprising, as the Department of Justice has lost more than 25 similar cases across the country.

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