SANTA ANA, Calif. – In a significant legal decision, a federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice against California, which had aimed to acquire detailed voting records and personal information of the state’s 23 million registered voters. The judge labeled the government’s request as “unprecedented and illegal.”

The lawsuit, initiated by the Trump administration last year, accused California and other states of unlawfully obstructing the federal government’s extensive attempts to access voter data that these states maintained was confidential and protected by law.

In his 33-page ruling, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, presiding in Santa Ana, stated, “The administration may not unilaterally usurp the authority over elections.”

Judge Carter further expressed that the federal effort to collect and centralize such personal data could deter voter registration and compromise “the right to vote, which is the cornerstone of American democracy.”

“There cannot be unbridled consolidation of all elections power in the executive branch without action from Congress,” Carter declared, emphasizing that such actions undermine the principles of fair and free elections.

The Justice Department has yet to issue a response to an email request for comment on the ruling.

It has accused states of failing to respond sufficiently to questions about the procedures they take to maintain voter rolls. The department has sued 23 states, most of them controlled by Democrats, and the District of Columbia for detailed voter data that includes names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

State election officials have questioned what the DOJ plans to do with that information. Last fall 10 Democratic secretaries of state wrote Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to express concern over reports that the DOJ was sharing state voter data with the Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of DHS, operates a program that checks citizenship status.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the state’s chief elections officer, said in a statement that California would “continue to challenge this administration’s disregard for the rule of law and our right to vote.”