Judge blocks DOJ effort to collect state voter rolls for citizenship checks

U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan ruled Friday that the Justice Department's program to collect state voter registration lists, cross-check them against federal databases to identify suspected noncitizens, and press states to remove them was unlawful. The ruling halts the effort nationwide, including in states that had voluntarily cooperated. Voting rights groups had challenged the program, citing errors in federal data that wrongly flagged citizens.