CREW sues to block illegal Trump administration plan to build master database of U.S. citizens that threatens privacy and risks chaos ahead of midterms

Today Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), represented by Protect Democracy and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s unprecedented and illegal effort to interfere in the 2026 midterms by using unreliable databases for reasons totally unrelated to their intended purpose to create lists of “citizens” in every state for determining who can and cannot vote. The complaint details how the administration’s actions are not only illegal but also run the risk of disenfranchising untold numbers of eligible voters ahead of the midterms, unless the court intervenes. 

On March 31, 2026, the White House issued its second executive order on elections, which directed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Social Security Administration, and the State Department to create “State Citizenship Lists” of “confirmed” citizens in all 50 states who reside in those states and are entitled to vote in federal elections. The data DHS is seeking to centralize—such as social security numbers, addresses, and citizenship information—is currently held by different federal agencies for data security and privacy purposes. 

As directed by the executive order and a subsequent memo from DHS, states will have just 60 days to cross reference their voter rolls with the new federal State Citizenship Lists—presumably to purge or withhold ballots from voters suspected of being ineligible to vote. Alarmingly, DHS has admitted that these lists will contain widespread inaccuracies that could result in eligible voters being wrongly flagged or removed from state voter rolls just weeks before Election Day. In fact, states that have already used this data have reported widespread errors and voter disenfranchisement and warned that there is “no way those lists are accurate.” Nevertheless, in order to compel states to use their error-prone citizenship lists, the Trump administration is threatening to investigate and prosecute states and election officials who “issue Federal ballots to individuals not eligible to vote.” 

To make matters worse, by consolidating Americans’ sensitive personal information (likely including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and citizenship records) into a single federal system, the government is creating exactly the kind of centralized personal data repository that federal privacy law was designed to prevent—one that presents a significantly heightened risk of breach, misuse, and identity theft.

The complaint filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland alleges that the administration’s effort is flagrantly unlawful: “No statute authorizes Defendants to share and centralize vast volumes of Americans’ sensitive personal data across government agencies to create and disclose the ‘State Citizenship Lists.’ And in doing so, Defendants are running roughshod over critical safeguards of the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), and the constitutional separation of powers.”

“In the United States, we have limits on how government agencies can collect and use sensitive personal data—limits this administration is blatantly ignoring,” said John Davisson, deputy director and director of enforcement at EPIC, which is also the plaintiff in the lawsuit. “Building a database containing the identities, social security numbers, addresses, and citizenship information of every U.S. citizen is an extraordinary illegal overreach by the federal government. This is precisely the nightmare ‘Big Brother’ scenario that the Privacy Act exists to prevent. We hope the court will block this effort immediately and protect every American’s fundamental right to privacy.”

“Free and fair elections are the foundation of our democracy. The Constitution entrusts the states—not the federal government—with administering elections, and states alone have the authority to determine voter eligibility,” said Nikhel Sus, chief counsel at CREW. “The federal government is now inserting itself into that process without authorization from Congress, just weeks before the midterm elections. Nothing about this makes our elections safer and more secure. It is another attempt by the Trump administration to pressure state officials to remove voters from the rolls and cause chaos ahead of the midterms.”

“Without any legal authority to do so, the Trump Administration is pressuring states to make rapid changes to their voter rolls based on an error-ridden database on a dangerously compressed timeline,” said Jules Torti, counsel at Protect Democracy. “This is a transparent attempt to create chaos and confusion ahead of the midterms, masquerading as an election security measure.”