DOJ increases pressure to vacuum up voter files

A month ago, I noted that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division had sent demands to a bunch of states for copies of the voter files. These letters were pretty unusual. I didn’t think DOJ’s ostensible rationale for demanding the files made much sense. I didn’t think the statutes DOJ cited entitled them to the information they were demanding. Indeed, I thought federal law precluded DOJ from amassing this information (at least until they do some more homework).

Now the Civil Rights Division is out with a new letter (as before, it’s not clear how many states were recipients, but it seems to be widespread, and perhaps national). The new letter is from the head of the Civil Rights Division, Assistant AG Harmeet Dhillon (previous iterations were from the acting chief of the Voting Section).