The NAACP is moving to join a high‑stakes federal court fight in Utah, arguing that the Trump administration’s Justice Department is going too far in its push to grab sensitive voter data.

On March 5, the civil rights organization and its Tri-State Conference of Idaho, Nevada, and Utah filed a motion to intervene in United States of America v. Henderson, a lawsuit where the Justice Department is suing Utah for refusing to hand over its complete voter registration list.

“We know from previous mishandlings that this government has not properly secured sensitive information, such as the social security numbers of U.S. citizens,” said Janette McCarthy-Wallace, General Counsel of the NAACP, in a statement. “The constitution was designed so that the President of the United States has no authority over free and fair elections and that voters can decide who represents them, free from intimidation and suppression.”

According to Democracy Docket, the DOJ wants the full statewide file, including voters’ names, home addresses, dates of birth, and either driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of Social Security numbers. Utah’s lieutenant governor, Deidre Henderson, has so far only provided a redacted list that strips out much of that personal information.

NAACP lawyers say that if the DOJ wins, it would expose millions of people’s private data, which would likely lead to less voter participation—especially among Black voters and other communities that already face barriers at the polls. 

"The NAACP will, at every chance, fight back against these injustices which set out to plague our communities,” McCarthy-Wallace continued.

The Utah case is part of a broader campaign: the DOJ has now sued 29 states and Washington, D.C., pressing them to turn over unredacted voter rolls under federal voting laws. The NAACP previously helped win dismissal of a similar case in California and has jumped into others in Georgia and beyond. 

With these actions, the NAACP is making it clear that this is about more than one lawsuit—it’s about keeping voters, and their most sensitive and personal information, protected.

“We'll see you in court,” the statement concluded.