{"id":221734,"date":"2026-01-20T23:06:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T04:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/?post_type=case&p=221734"},"modified":"2026-01-21T09:34:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:34:29","slug":"united-states-v-matthews","status":"publish","type":"case","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/united-states-v-matthews","title":{"rendered":"United States v. Matthews"},"menu_order":0,"template":"","supreme_court_term":[],"court":[],"class_list":["post-221734","case","type-case","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"case_number":"3:25-cv-03398-CRL-DJQ","featured_image":219307,"issues":[46799,46459,46463],"court_type":"other","case_type":false,"supreme_court_term":null,"state_territory_affiliate":[334],"status":"ongoing","date_updated":"20260109","whats_at_stake":"The Department of Justice sued the Illinois Board of Elections, demanding the state produce its full, unredacted voter file, which contains highly sensitive and personal data on every voter in the state. This suit appears to be part of the federal government's efforts to build a national voter database without congressional authorization and to improperly question the validity of state voter rolls.","call_to_action":null,"summary":"As part of a widespread campaign to exert federal control over state electoral processes, and under the guise of attempting to uncover non-existent voter fraud, the Trump Department of Justice has sought to collect highly sensitive voter data from states across the country, data that is protected under state and federal law. The data includes voters\u2019 full names, dates of birth, addresses, driver\u2019s license numbers and even partial Social Security numbers.\r\n\r\nThe Illinois Board of Elections refused to turn over this sensitive data about every voter in our state and provided redacted information instead, citing privacy protections under state and federal law. Consistent with its action in other states, the Trump DOJ sued the Board of Elections seeking access to the data.\r\n\r\nWe represent Common Cause, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and three individual Illinois voters \u2013 Pablo Mendoza, Brian Beals, and Alejandra Iba\u00f1ez \u2013 seeking to intervene to prevent the Department of Justice (DOJ) from obtaining Illinois voters\u2019 personal data from the nonpublic voter file.","case_decision":"","featured_case":false,"legal_project":"The ACLU Voting Rights Project (VRP)","date_filed":null,"administration_challenged":"Trump","constitutional_principle":[],"drupal_node_id":"","legal_documents":[{"court":2450,"documents":[{"document_options":"document","document":221735,"title":"Memorandum in Support of Common Cause, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Brian Beals, Pablo Mendoza, and Alejandra L. 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This suit appears to be part of the federal government's efforts to build a national voter database without congressional authorization and to improperly question the validity of state voter rolls.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"United States v. Matthews | American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Department of Justice sued the Illinois Board of Elections, demanding the state produce its full, unredacted voter file, which contains highly sensitive and personal data on every voter in the state. This suit appears to be part of the federal government's efforts to build a national voter database without congressional authorization and to improperly question the validity of state voter rolls.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/united-states-v-matthews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-21T14:34:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/united-states-v-matthews\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/united-states-v-matthews\",\"name\":\"United States v. 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