Former DOJ attorneys intervene in lawsuit seeking sensitive Illinois
voter registration data
[March 04, 2026]
By Peter Hancock
SPRINGFIELD – Eighteen former U.S. Department of Justice attorneys filed
a brief in federal court this week opposing the Trump administration’s
lawsuit that seeks access to sensitive personal information about every
registered voter in Illinois.
In a friend-of-the-court brief filed Monday in U.S. District Court in
Springfield, the attorneys — including many who served in both
Democratic and Republican administrations — argue the Department of
Justice has no legal authority to demand the information.
They also accuse the agency of concealing its real purpose for seeking
the data, which they argue is “to enable the federal government to
conduct its own list maintenance to discover whether noncitizens or
undocumented immigrants are registered to vote.”
‘Holy trinity of Identity theft’
Illinois is among 29 states and Washington, D.C., that are being sued
for access to their unredacted voter registration rolls. Those databases
include not just the names and addresses of every registered voter in
those jurisdictions but also their dates of birth, driver’s license
numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
“The holy trinity of identity theft, as I’ve called it,” David Becker,
one of the former DOJ attorneys who signed the brief, said during a
media briefing Tuesday.
According to the Brennan Center, federal judges in California, Oregon
and Michigan have ruled that the DOJ cannot force states to turn over
voter lists as of Feb. 26. No judges have ruled in favor of the DOJ.
Becker is also the founder and executive director of the Center for
Election Innovation and Research, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization
that conducts elections research and works with election officials
around the country.
Becker said he and the other attorneys have filed similar briefs in most
of the ongoing lawsuits seeking access to sensitive voter information in
other states. He said while it is not common for former DOJ attorneys to
intervene in cases against their former employer, it is also not
unprecedented.
“I don’t go around looking for places to disagree with the Department of
Justice. I’m much happier when I think the Department of Justice is
looking out for all of us and enforcing the law as it should be,” he
said. “But in these cases, we needed to point out how the department’s
efforts to seize sensitive voter data from every American voter from the
states that hold that sensitive data, that have state laws that protect
that data, how that was unprecedented.”
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David Becker, founder and executive director of the Center for
Election Innovation and Research, is among 18 former Department of
Justice attorneys who filed a brief in federal court in Illinois
opposing the department’s lawsuit seeking access to the state’s
unredacted voter registration database. (Screenshot of Zoom call by
Capitol News Illinois)
History of the lawsuit
The Justice Department first requested the information from the Illinois
State Board of Elections in July 2025, arguing it needed the data to
determine whether Illinois was complying with federal laws that require
states to maintain accurate and up-to-date voter registration files.
That includes taking steps to periodically purge the rolls of the names
of voters who have died, moved or who are not legally eligible to vote.
The state board, however, has so far declined to hand over the
information. Instead, in August, it provided DOJ with a partially
redacted data file — the same file it makes available to political
parties and campaign committees — that only includes partial home
addresses and does not include driver’s license or partial Social
Security numbers.
In December, after a series of emails in which DOJ continued to demand
the information, the board of elections filed suit in federal court.
Several other organizations have also intervened in the case to oppose
the administration’s efforts to obtain the data. Those include the
Illinois AFL-CIO, the Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans, the
Illinois Federation of Teachers, Common Cause and the Illinois Coalition
for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
No hearings or oral arguments have been scheduled in the case.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government
coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily
by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick
Foundation.
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