Court Dismisses DOJ Lawsuit Seeking Kentucky Voters' Sensitive Personal Information

Ruling blocks Trump administration's attempt to obtain confidential voter data

July 23, 2026 5:00 pm

US v Adams: We're defending privacy and voting rights for all Kentuckians.

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Eric King, Interim Communications Director, 502.822.6111, [email protected]

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A federal court dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit seeking to force Kentucky election officials to disclose sensitive voter information, including voters' dates of birth, driver's license numbers, and Social Security numbers. The ruling is the seventeenth from a federal court rejecting the DOJ’s unlawful attempts to get its hands on such data.

The League of Women Voters of Kentucky, the New Americans Initiative, and two individual Kentucky voters filed a motion to intervene in the case, arguing that the Department of Justice had no legal authority to compel the disclosure of Kentuckians' confidential voter information. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Kentucky.

The lawsuit was part of the Trump administration's broader effort to obtain sensitive voter data from states across the country. The ACLU and its partners have challenged similar demands nationwide, warning that forcing states to hand over confidential voter records threatens voter privacy and undermines public trust in our elections.

Plaintiffs and counsel released the following joint statement:

"This ruling is a significant victory for Kentucky voters and their right to participate in our democracy without sacrificing their privacy. The Department of Justice has no legal basis to demand highly sensitive personal information, no doubt to weaponize it against eligible voters and chill civic participation. In a moment where President Trump continues to weaponize the DOJ against the American people and attempts to sow doubt and chaos into our elections, we are proud to have represented Kentucky voters and civic organizations in challenging this federal overreach, and will continue to defend voter privacy and access to the ballot.”

Read the court’s order here.

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US v Adams: We're defending privacy and voting rights for all Kentuckians.
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Beginning in the summer of 2025, DOJ sent a series of escalating letters to Kentucky election officials demanding the state's complete, unredacted voter registration list. When Kentucky declined to hand over voters' most sensitive personal data, DOJ filed suit in February 2026 — one of at least 29 nearly identical cases brought against states with officials who refused to comply. Extensive public reporting and sworn court filings reveal that the requested data is not simply intended for routine election law enforcement. Rather, officials have acknowledged plans to run the data through cross-agency matching systems to identify alleged noncitizens on state voter rolls. Those efforts have already been shown to produce significant numbers of false positives, incorrectly flagging U.S. citizens as ineligible. The initiative has been shaped in part by outside "election integrity" activists who previously used similar techniques to mount mass voter challenges before the 2024 election, all of which were ultimately rejected. The League of Women Voters of Kentucky, the New Americans Initiative, and two individual Kentucky voters — both naturalized citizens who fear their registrations could be wrongly targeted — have moved to intervene as defendants to safeguard voter privacy and ensure that the voices of affected Kentucky voters are heard in court.