De-escalation: Judge LaPlante dismisses DOJ New Hampshire voter-data suit

U.S. District Judge Joseph LaPlante dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking New Hampshire’s statewide voter registration list. He found the Attorney General’s demand did not comply with Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 and that the government failed to allege any violation of the Help America Vote Act. The opinion said the ruling prevents “allowing the Attorney General unrestricted access to New Hampshire’s voter list to conduct a line-by-line audit to assess a ‘possible’ violation,” and concluded the state list is not a record covered by the 1960 law.

The department had sought an unredacted database with dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers, saying it was needed to police states’ list maintenance, and in one case acknowledged it intended to share the data with Homeland Security to check citizenship status. The New Hampshire dismissal adds to a string of courtroom losses for the push; one tally now puts the record at 0–11, while another counts 10 states where similar bids have been rejected. The ruling leaves New Hampshire under no obligation to turn over its list on those theories and ends the department’s bid to compel production in this case.

AI-synthesized from multiple reported sources