Highlights
- DOJ attorney Jonathon P. Hauenschild notified the trial court Wednesday that an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is coming.
- Judge Susan Brnovich, a Trump appointee, dismissed the case with prejudice in late April, barring the administration from refiling under a different legal theory.
- Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes will defend the appeal, with her spokesman saying the trial court ruling 'couldn't have been clearer.'
- The DOJ has sued at least 30 states and Washington, D.C., seeking detailed voter registration data; federal judges have rejected similar demands in five other states.
The Trump administration will take its fight for Arizona's voter registration database to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to a court filing Wednesday by Jonathon P. Hauenschild, an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice's civil rights division.
The notice comes roughly five weeks after U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich dismissed the DOJ's lawsuit against Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. Brnovich, appointed to the bench in 2018 by President Donald Trump, rejected the administration's argument that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 granted then-Attorney General Pam Bondi broad authority to demand an unredacted electronic copy of the state's voter rolls. She dismissed the case with prejudice, which bars the administration from refiling under a different legal theory.
Fontes had refused the DOJ's first request, made in July 2025, citing state and federal privacy laws. The administration sued him in January after he declined subsequent demands.
In her ruling, Brnovich concluded that Arizona's statewide voter registration list is not a record subject to Attorney General demand under federal law, because the database is created by state elections officials rather than submitted by voters. She also found that the administration's reading of the Civil Rights Act would create an internal conflict with the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act, both of which require elections officials to regularly update the electronic voter database.
Why does this case matter beyond Arizona?
The DOJ has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking detailed voter registration data, according to NBC News. Federal judges have rejected similar DOJ demands in Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Oregon. In March, a DOJ attorney acknowledged in Rhode Island proceedings that voter data collected from states is being shared with the Department of Homeland Security to screen for noncitizen voters.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes will defend against the appeal. Spokesman Richie Taylor told the Arizona Mirror that Mayes was confident the trial court's ruling would be upheld. "Judge Brnovich's ruling in this case couldn't have been clearer," Taylor said. "The Civil Rights Act does not authorize the DOJ's demand for this private voter information and federal court after federal court has reached the same conclusion."
Oral arguments at the 9th Circuit have not yet been scheduled.
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- azmirror.com retrieved 03/06/2026 19:06
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 03/06/2026 19:06. Every claim traces to a source.
