‘The Court will dismiss the Attorney General’s claim with prejudice because amendment would be legally futile,’ the judge wrote.
A federal judge on April 28 dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes that sought access to state voter registration data.
Judge Susan Brnovich of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona wrote in a 13-page ruling that Arizona’s voter registration list is “not a document subject to request by the Attorney General“ and that the DOJ did not provide sufficient argument to ”convince the court” to allow access to the data.
“Accordingly, the Court will dismiss the Attorney General’s claim with prejudice because amendment would be legally futile,” Brnovich wrote.
The DOJ filed its lawsuit against Fontes’s office in January, saying he refused to provide the department with the list in August 2025.
It asked for Fontes to provide the DOJ with “the current electronic copy of Arizona’s computerized statewide voter registration list, with all fields, including each registrant’s full name, date of birth, residential address, and either their state driver’s license number, the last four digits of their Social Security number, or [Help America Vote Act] unique identifier” within five days of a court order.
The DOJ had argued that the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act require that states maintain voter lists to ensure their accuracy. Further, it said that Congress provided the attorney general with the capacity to request state voting records under Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
But Brnovich wrote that Title III of the law doesn’t authorize the DOJ to demand voter lists.
“There is no canon of statutory construction which requires this Court to construe Title III broadly merely because it pertains to election records,” her order states. “More importantly, the Court will not superimpose an expansive definition where Title III, by its plain text, does not tolerate such a definition.”
In a statement on April 28, Fontes and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, both Democrats, hailed the federal judge’s ruling to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the list requested by the DOJ contains “sensitive personal information” for 2 million Arizona voters.
“Arizona acted correctly in refusing this request, and today’s ruling vindicates that decision,“ their statement said. ”Our offices will continue to defend the privacy of Arizona voters against federal overreach.”
The Trump administration has made requests for similar voting records from each state. About a dozen have complied, but at least 30 others have not, citing state privacy laws.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, has said she is prepared to take the cases to the Supreme Court.
