{"id":13042,"date":"2026-05-21T20:14:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T20:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/21\/federal-court-dismisses-trumps-lawsuit-over-maine-voter-rolls-maine-morning-star\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T20:14:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T20:14:55","slug":"federal-court-dismisses-trumps-lawsuit-over-maine-voter-rolls-maine-morning-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/21\/federal-court-dismisses-trumps-lawsuit-over-maine-voter-rolls-maine-morning-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal court dismisses Trump\u2019s lawsuit over Maine voter rolls – Maine Morning Star"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The U.S. District Court in Maine delivered a blow to President Donald Trump\u2019s Department of Justice Thursday, granting the state\u2019s motion to throw out the federal government\u2019s lawsuit over Maine refusing to turn over sensitive voter data.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Further, Chief U.S. District Judge Lance Walker concluded<\/a> that the government\u2019s stated purpose for the request \u2014 to ensure compliance with federal voter laws \u2014 is insufficient. Such an interpretation of federal law, Walker wrote in his ruling, \u201cwould take a sledgehammer to the balance Congress struck when it required states to create and maintain computerized lists of registered voters in the first place.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnder our Constitution, states are the primary regulators and administrators of elections for federal office, unless Congress passes legislation that preempts that framework,\u201d Walker wrote. \u201cAnd Congress\u2019s power to do even that is itself subject to limitations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows <\/span>twice rejected<\/span><\/a> requests from the Trump administration for Maine\u2019s full, unredacted voter rolls \u2014 <\/span>among other information<\/span> \u2014<\/span><\/a> and the DOJ responded with a <\/span>lawsuit<\/span><\/a> in September. Attorney General Aaron Frey, on behalf of the state, <\/span>asked the district court to dismiss the lawsuit<\/span><\/a> in December.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bellows said in a statement that Thursday\u2019s ruling affirms that the states are in charge of elections.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet me clear \u2013 Trump and the DOJ may continue to try to interfere with free and fair elections run by the states,\u201d said Bellows, who is also running for governor. \u201cWe will not let them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Eight rulings have now sided with states pushing back against Trump\u2019s attempted data grabs, after the ruling in Maine along with another in Wisconsin on Thursday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In making its demands, the DOJ had cited the Civil Rights Act to assess compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and Help America Vote Act.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Department of Justice wants to enforce HAVA and the NVRA, it must use the pre-suit investigation and enforcement mechanisms that Congress provided in those statutes,\u201d Walker wrote, adding, \u201cwhich do not contemplate production of the unredacted computerized list to the Attorney General so that he might loom over the shoulder of the state election official to point out and demand the correction of inaccuracies in the list.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Independent Journalism for All<\/h4>\n

As a nonprofit newsroom, our articles are free for everyone to access. Readers like you make that possible. Can you help sustain our watchdog reporting today?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. District Court in Maine delivered a blow to President Donald Trump\u2019s Department of Justice Thursday, granting the state\u2019s motion to throw out the federal government\u2019s lawsuit over Maine refusing to turn over sensitive voter data.\u00a0 Further, Chief U.S. District Judge Lance Walker concluded that the government\u2019s stated purpose for the request \u2014 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}