United States v. DeMarinis

Since 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has demanded that states turn over voter registration records containing sensitive voter information as part of a nationwide effort focused on voter-list maintenance. In Maryland, the DOJ sought the complete, unredacted statewide voter registration list. The district court dismissed the case, and the DOJ appealed to the Fourth Circuit.

Public Rights Project filed an amicus brief on behalf of local election officials and governments representing 40 jurisdictions, urging the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm the dismissal of the DOJ’s case in Maryland.

The brief explains why the DOJ’s demand fails to satisfy the Civil Rights Act’s requirements for a proper purpose and sufficient basis, and why courts must review broad federal requests for sensitive election records. It also highlights the practical and legal concerns these demands raise for local election officials, including:

• Surges in public record requests, including ones from the DOJ, place an unnecessary burden on local election officials and threaten to impede their ability to run an election. 
• An executive order directing the U.S. attorney general to prioritize prosecuting local election officials over list maintenance duties.
• A sweeping request that amounts to a fishing expedition rather than a targeted inquiry into Maryland’s list maintenance program.
• Maryland’s election officials have met their list maintenance requirements under the National Voter Registration Act or Help America Vote Act.

For these reasons, we urge the court to affirm the dismissal.

Public Rights Project also filed similar briefs in the First, Second, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth circuit courts of appeals to defend local authority in California, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Wisconsin. The briefs provide courts with the perspectives of election officials who are responsible for maintaining voter registration systems and responding to federal requests for election records.

Read the amicus brief.