Miller Says Democrat Judges Blocked Voter-Roll Checks. The Court Record Shows 26 Dismissals Across Party Lines

"For two years the Trump Admin has sought federal voter rolls and welfare rolls from blue states to run against the federal non-citizen database—Democrat states refused and Democrat judges blocked DOJ/DHS. In every blue state you can vote or get welfare just by checking a box."

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What the lawsuits show. Since September 2025, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking unredacted statewide voter rolls, ProPublica reported Oct. 16. A University of Wisconsin Law School tracker, last updated Oct. 15, counts 31 federal lawsuits against those jurisdictions — the higher figure reflects a Georgia case that was dismissed for wrong venue and refiled.

ProPublica found final rulings in 26 of the lawsuits, all dismissals. Of the judges randomly assigned to those 26 cases, eight were appointed by President Trump, four by President George W. Bush and 14 by Democrats, ProPublica reported. Four district-court cases remain pending, against Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho and Utah, the Wisconsin tracker says. Hawaii and Idaho have been stayed while the Ninth Circuit decides appeals in California and Oregon.

Oklahoma settled. On March 24, Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced that the state would provide its computerized statewide voter registration list under a settlement that, he said, includes Privacy Act protections. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division called the settlement "a positive step forward for election integrity" and said "clean voter rolls are essential for there to be confidence in our elections."

Appeals. The Sixth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the Michigan case and later denied rehearing en banc, according to the Wisconsin tracker and ProPublica. Appeals are pending in multiple circuits, including the Ninth (California and Oregon among them), the Tenth and the D.C. Circuit. A Justice Department spokesperson told ProPublica: "Our attorneys are skilled, principled advocates who argue every case honestly and in good faith. Disagreement with the government's position is not evidence of bad faith. We look forward to making our case on appeal."

Maine. In one of the early cases, Maine federal Judge Lance E. Walker, a Trump appointee, dismissed the government's demand for Maine's unredacted voter list. "Neither statute gives the United States the power to compel Maine to produce its current [unredacted voter list]," he wrote, as quoted by ProPublica.

The Oct. 9 policy ruling. Separately, Common Cause and individual voters challenged DOJ's broader "Voter List Maintenance Policy." On Oct. 9, U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan of the District of Columbia ordered that the court "sets aside and vacates the Defendants' Voter List Maintenance Policy." In her memorandum opinion, she wrote: "DOJ cannot run roughshod over longstanding laws that were carefully crafted to protect the rights of the American people." She also wrote that the policy "represents the federal government's attempt to decide who gets to vote. But Congress has left that authority where our Constitution has always placed it: with the states."

CBS News reported that Sooknanan found at least 18 states had fully cooperated with DOJ's request for voter files. A DOJ spokesperson told CBS the department is reviewing the decision. Common Cause CEO Virginia Kase Solomón called the ruling "a victory for voters and yet another loss for the Department of Justice."

Related Radio Purple coverage. The Justice Department's separate Oct. 15 suit seeking to hold back about 20,000 California mail ballots is covered in our earlier story. Federal pressure on election officials, including the voter-data fight, was also a theme of our 60 Minutes report.

Miller's other claims. Two pieces of Monday's post sit outside the published lawsuit trackers.

• Welfare rolls. The ProPublica and Wisconsin trackers document demands for voter registration lists, not welfare rolls. Separately, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced in May 2025 that states must share SNAP benefit records with the federal government. The Associated Press has reported that Medicaid enrollee data from some states was shared with the Department of Homeland Security, prompting lawsuits by state attorneys general. Radio Purple found no court docket, in the voter-roll trackers, showing DOJ or DHS sued blue states for welfare rolls as part of the same campaign Miller describes.
• "Check a box." Federal law requires the national mail voter registration form to ask, "Are you a citizen of the United States of America?" with boxes to check, and to require the applicant's signature under penalty of perjury, according to the Justice Department's NVRA guidance. That requirement applies in NVRA-covered states nationwide, not only in blue states. The federal form does not require documentary proof of citizenship. Miller's claim that "in every blue state you can vote or get welfare just by checking a box" goes beyond what the voter-registration form alone establishes; Radio Purple did not independently verify a parallel, nationwide "check a box" rule for welfare eligibility as he stated it.

Who refused. Miller framed refusals as a blue-state story. The Guardian reported in May that several Republican-led states, including Utah, West Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky and Idaho, also refused to hand over the requested data, citing state authority over elections, privacy laws and the legal basis for DOJ's demand. Those states appear among the defendants in the Wisconsin tracker.