Judge blocks DOJ policy to check state voter rolls against immigration databases

The Justice Department wanted to compare voter lists with federal immigration records and push states to remove people it said were not eligible to vote.

A federal judge ruled that the policy broke laws and could wrongly remove citizens from voter rolls.

The ruling covers voter files the department already received as well as those it was still seeking.

States remain responsible for their own voter rolls, and the judge said the ruling does not prevent lawful efforts to keep them accurate.