Judge Barlow Dismisses DOJ Suit Against Utah Lt. Gov. Henderson

The Trump administration has now lost 26 lawsuits concerning state voter rolls, with the latest defeat arriving just days before the midterm elections. On Friday, District Judge David Barlow dismissed a Department of Justice case against Utah Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson. The suit sought to compel the state’s top election official to release a comprehensive database of Utah voters.

The Justice Department asked the court to force Henderson to provide names, birthdays, addresses, and partial identification numbers for every registered voter in the state. Federal lawyers argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 required the release of voting records that officials come into possession of. They contended that the law served as an enforcement tool for federal election laws, meaning it should apply to the statewide registration database used for voter-list maintenance.

Barlow rejected that interpretation. He cited a previous Sixth Circuit ruling stating that an ordinary English speaker would not describe a dataset as something an official came into possession of if that official created, established, and maintained it. The judge stated that courts have no authority to elevate vague invocations of statutory purpose over the specific words Congress chose. This reasoning led him to dismiss the complaint with prejudice, preventing the DOJ from simply refiling the same claim.

The loss adds to a growing list of legal hurdles for the administration’s push to address alleged illegal voting. A DOJ spokeswoman told Fox News Digital that the department would appeal the decision. She noted that the only appellate court to review the issue had split on largely partisan grounds, with five judges signing dissents from a denial of en banc review in the Sixth Circuit.

Henderson, a Republican, responded to the ruling on Threads. She wrote that her office appreciates the dismissal of the lawsuit that sought to force the disclosure of private data for every Utah voter. She stated her office will continue to uphold the rule of law and safeguard the right to free and secure elections. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

The administration continues to pursue other legal actions despite these setbacks. The DOJ has three pending voter-roll cases in Hawaii, Idaho, and Delaware. It is also appealing losses in California and Oregon. While the department has charged several individuals with illegal voting since the administration took power, it has not yet uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud in the states where these cases are active.