The Trump administration wanted Vermont’s voter rolls. A federal judge just said no.
U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Lanthier on Thursday tossed the Trump Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking to force Vermont to hand over its statewide voter registration database, including sensitive identifying information about registered voters.
The ruling is the latest defeat in the administration’s nationwide effort to obtain state voter rolls. According to Bloomberg, it was the 24th consecutive federal trial-court loss in the Justice Department’s campaign to obtain voter registration data from states.
The DOJ argued that Title III of the Civil Rights Act gave it authority to demand Vermont’s voter list so federal officials could determine whether the state was complying with voter-registration and list-maintenance requirements under the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.
Lanthier rejected that argument.
“Consistent with several other courts,” the judge wrote, Title III of the Civil Rights Act does not apply to the Justice Department’s request. Even if it did, she said, the government’s written demand still would not satisfy the statute.
The judge also rejected the government’s characterization of Vermont’s electronic voter database as a “record” subject to disclosure under the law.
Unlike a static document, Lanthier noted, voter rolls are constantly changing. Voters are added and removed as they register, move, die or otherwise become ineligible. She described the database as a “dynamic” repository, rather than the kind of “static document” contemplated by the Civil Rights Act.
And even if Title III applied, Lanthier found another problem with the DOJ’s demand.
The government had not alleged a basis involving racial discrimination for obtaining the identifying information — an important point because Title III is part of the Civil Rights Act.
The information sought by the federal government was not exactly trivial.
The requested voter data included names, home addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license information and Social Security numbers, according to reporting on the case.
Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas and Attorney General Charity Clark, whose office represented the state, said the ruling confirmed that the administration could not demand access to voters’ sensitive personal information.
“The court made clear: The Trump Administration had no authority to demand access to the sensitive personal information of voters,” they said in a joint statement.
The Justice Department, however, isn’t treating the ruling as the end of the fight.
DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels said the department is reviewing the decision and “will likely appeal.”
The dispute began after federal officials demanded Vermont’s voter registration information and Secretary of State Copeland Hanzas refused to provide it. The DOJ sued in December 2025, seeking to compel the state to turn over the data.
But Vermont’s voter rolls remain in Vermont.
