In a stunning display of a co-equal branch of government actually functioning, U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom dismissed a Department of Justice lawsuit demanding Kentucky hand over unredacted voter rolls, including residents’ driver’s license and Social Security numbers. Because apparently that needed to be litigated.
Boom isn’t some rogue outlier here, either. She’s the eighth Trump-appointed judge to look at this exact demand from this exact administration and say some version of “no, federal law does not grant you unfettered access to a state’s private citizen data, thanks for asking.” The DOJ has now sued 30 states and D.C. over this, going 0-for-a-lot.
Boom leaned on a recent 6th Circuit ruling against the same maneuver in Michigan, which means the losing streak now has actual appellate backup. The DOJ, undeterred by math, has already asked for a rehearing.
It’s not much, but for one Thursday in Kentucky, basic data privacy law beat out a federal agency’s group project. We’ll take the win.
All of this actually happened. Louisville Public Media confirmed it.