Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,
The federal government must stop transmitting lists of people officials say are confirmed or suspected noncitizens registered to vote, a U.S. judge ruled on Nov. 2.
Bulk disclosure of the lists to states likely violates the Privacy Act, which prohibits disclosure of identifiable personal information unless officials meet one of the exceptions, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in the District of Columbia wrote in a 30-page ruling.
The law enforcement exception, for instance, does not apply because it requires the head of an agency to request records, and the government has not shown any such request, Chutkan said.
Officials also never published a systems of record notice, or SORN, which the act requires for new databases.
"This constitutes a violation of the Privacy Act's procedural requirements," Chutkan wrote. "As another court in this district has observed, 'it is flatly inconsistent with the text, structure, and purpose of the Privacy Act for an agency to initiate a major new data-sharing program affecting the sensitive data of millions of Americans' without publishing a SORN that covers the intended routine uses of the information."
The judge also concluded that no law authorizes the government's policy to collect lists of registered voters and transmit them to states.
She forbade officials for the time being from disclosing lists of potential or actual non-citizen voters or registered voters to states and counties.
The departments of Justice and Homeland Security did not respond to early morning requests for comment by the time of publication.
The ruling came on the same day that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the government can pressure states to isolate ballots from suspected noncitizens and threaten election officials with prosecution if they allowed noncitizens to vote. The full appeals court quickly vacated that order and said the case will be reheard by the full court.
Officials have been sending the lists to states and counties and demanding they take action to verify whether the individuals are citizens of the United States. If they aren't, they are prohibited from registering to vote or voting in federal elections.
Department of Justice lawyers had told Chutkan in a brief that the operation to identify noncitizen voters was not a final agency action subject to review, that the groups that sued over the effort did not have standing because it did not injure them, and that the project was authorized in part by a law that says the government "has broad, undoubted power over the subject of immigration and the status of aliens."
They also said the Privacy Act only allows individuals, not organizations, to sue for relief.
Chutkan said the plaintiffs, which include the League of Women Voters, are likely to succeed on the claim that the policy of transmitting the data is a final action because legal consequences are flowing from it, including lawsuits from the federal government challenging how state officials have responded after receiving the lists.
She said the league has standing because its ability to register voters ahead of the midterm elections was harmed by the policy, that the immigration law defendants cited does not enable them to transmit the lists, and that other courts have considered the position that only individuals can sue for Privacy Act violations, and rejected that position.