Trump-appointed judge hands DOJ its 17th loss as red state rejects voting data gambit

President Donald Trump’s crusade to force states to hand over voter information just failed for the 17th time in a row.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom, herself a Trump appointee, tossed out the government’s lawsuit against Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams and the Kentucky State Board of Elections, dismissing the case with prejudice, meaning DOJ can’t simply refile and try again.

As with all the previous cases in other states, the Justice Department sought a massive trove of information about voters in Kentucky, including sensitive identifying information like driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

Adams, one of many secretaries of state to reject Trump’s voter file demands, is a conservative Republican, but has become renowned for his efforts to expand voting access in Kentucky — to an extent that some elements of his own party have opposed his policies.

The ruling leans heavily on a recent Sixth Circuit decision involving Michigan’s voter rolls, which found that a state’s own self-generated voter list doesn’t count as a record that ‘comes into’ election officials’ possession under the 1960 Civil Rights Act provision DOJ was relying on.

Judge Boom found DOJ’s demand letters to Kentucky were nearly identical to those sent to Michigan — and just as legally deficient. Federal law requires any such records request to spell out both a basis and a purpose in writing, but the government’s three letters to Kentucky officials, sent between July and August 2025, each failed to check both boxes. One cited the wrong laws entirely, while another gave a purpose without ever explaining the legal basis behind it.

Kentucky now joins a growing list of states, including several Republican-controlled states, where courts have shut down DOJ’s push for sensitive voter information like Social Security numbers and driver’s license data.