US appeals court rejects challenge to Trump voter fraud panel
A US federal appeals court has rejected a legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission over its collection of voter data.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday that the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) watchdog group lacks the legal standing to sue the commission for alleged violations of the 2002 E-Government Act.
EPIC had said that under federal law, the commission had to conduct a privacy-impact assessment before collecting personal data. However, the court ruled that the privacy law at issue was meant to protect individuals, not groups like EPIC.
Judge Stephen Williams wrote that EPIC is “not a voter” and represents no voters, so it cannot sue the commission known as the President's Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.
Williams said EPIC “has suffered no informational or organizational injury from the defendants’ failure to produce an assessment.”
"As far as the record shows, it has no traditional membership, let alone members who are voters. Unsurprisingly, then, it does not claim standing on behalf of any voter whose data is likely to be collected," the three-judge court panel said.
In May, Trump created the panel after claiming, without any evidence, he lost the popular vote to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton because of fraud.
In June, the commission’s vice chair, Kris Kobach, an advocate of tougher laws on immigration and voter identification, demanded that states turn over voter information, including names, addresses, birth dates and the final four digits of social security numbers.
Over 20 states refused to do so and others said they needed to study whether they could give the data.
In July, EPIC sued the panel to prevent it from collecting the data.
Opponents of the commission voiced concern that Trump intended to suppress voter turnout.
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