United States v. Nago

On December 12, 2025, the United States sued the Hawai‘i Secretary of State, seeking the release of the state's unredacted voter file, which includes voters' full names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver's license numbers, and the last four digits of voters' Social Security numbers. The United States claims—without merit—that this disclosure is compelled by the Civil Rights Act of 1960, a law passed to ensure Black voters in the Jim Crow South were able to register to vote.

This lawsuit is one of dozens of similar cases that DOJ has brought recently against states and elections officials, and it appears to be part of the federal government’s broader efforts to create a national voter database without congressional authorization, to undermine the validity of certain states’ election administration process and voter rolls, and to question the status of certain voters. Shortly after DOJ filed its suit in Hawai‘i, we filed a motion to intervene and an accompanying motion to dismiss on behalf of Common Cause, its members, and two registered Hawai‘i voters whose personal data are at stake. The intervenors are represented by the ACLU Voting Rights Project and the ACLU of Hawai‘i.