Bush appointee hands Trump his 19th straight loss in push for voter rolls

President Donald Trump just lost his 19th straight judicial case in an attempt to obtain state voter roles, continuing his failed track record of being rejected by courts when attempting to suppress voters.

“[Department of Justice] loses for the 19th time in efforts to obtain state voter rolls, this time in Colorado, courtesy [sic] of Judge Philip Brimmer, a George W. Bush appointee,” Politico’s Kyle Cheney posted on X on Tuesday.

In the case itself, Judge Brimmer declared that Trump’s administration has no legal authority to supersede the states and try to purge voters from the rolls.

“The authorities cited by the United States do not support its position,” Brimmer wrote on Monday, citing cases including Jud. Watch, Inc. v. Lamone in 2019, State of Ala. ex rel. Gallion v. Rogers in 1960 and Dinkens v. Att'y Gen. of U.S. in 1961.

“In order to state a claim for violation of” existing laws, Brimmer added, “the United States must allege that it requested a ‘record or paper required by section 20701.’” Yet “because the Court finds that Colorado's SVRL is not a record or paper that must be produced pursuant to” existing statues, the court denied Trump’s claim.

“Accordingly, the Court will grant the motions to dismiss of the Secretary, the Common Cause Intervenors, and the Alliance Intervenors, and deny the United States' motion to compel, and dismiss its claims,” Brimmer concluded.

Adam Klasfield, editor-in-chief of All Rise News, posted on X that this is an ironic loss for Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general who was just cleared by the Senate Judiciary Committee for possible confirmation to be full-time attorney general.

“On the day he clears Committee, reports emerge that Todd Blanche lost his 19th consecutive lawsuit seeking sensitive voter data,” Klasfield wrote. “Blanche has no victories in these cases. (Edited post: The ruling was dated Monday, first reported today.)”

Speaking with AlterNet in June, Senior Policy Director for Voting and Fair Representation at Common Cause Dan Vicuña argued that Trump’s various so-called voter reform efforts — including seeking states’ voter rolls — are all part of an effort to steal the midterms.

“What they all add up to is a desire to avoid any accountability to the voters in the midterm elections — to ensure, to preordain the outcome of a midterm that he thinks is going to go badly for him,” Vicuña told AlterNet. “We know, from the Big Lie of the 2020 election to spurring on a violent revolt to overthrow a free and fair election, that he has no respect for democratic norms, for the voice of the people. This is entirely about his own power and his own ego. He will even invest in protecting that ego and protecting his power at the expense of the needs of the public. People are suffering with high gas prices and affordability issues, and he does not care. All that matters is protecting his power, and he has no interest in whether he does that through democratic means.”

He continued, “I think this all adds up to a desire to ensure that his party stays in power and his ability to do what he wants — to attack vulnerable communities — remains intact.”

As for the attempts to nationalize elections, Vicuña added that the efforts are likely illegal.

“I think some of these attempts to federalize, to nationalize elections are clearly illegal,” Vicuña explained. “You've seen some of that overreach already struck down — attempts to order independent agencies to force a strict voter ID requirement on people. That has been rejected. Common Cause is in court challenging the latest executive order to turn the United States Postal Service into some election administration agency and to create a further bureaucratic layer to make it more difficult to vote by mail. In terms of the president's authority to order around USPS, it's illegal. In terms of USPS's authority to become some sort of national election administration agency, it far exceeds the legal authority that Congress gave to the postal service. The statute describing what kind of work the postal service would do is about postal service work — processing mail and selling stamps. It has nothing to do with election administration.”