The court holds the government has no need for this information given that the statute of limitations has run on any 2020 election crimes and given the highly burdensome and private nature of some of the information.
This part of… Continue reading
The post Federal District Court Quashes DOJ Attempt to Get a “Staggering” Amount of Personal Data from Fulton County, Georgia Workers and Volunteers Who Helped Run and Certify the 2020 Elections appeared first on Election Law Blog.
The court holds the government has no need for this information given that the statute of limitations has run on any 2020 election crimes and given the highly burdensome and private nature of some of the information.
This part of the order, from Trump-appointed Judge William Ray II, is notable:
In these hyper-political times in which we currently live, there are sure to be some who disagree with this decision because they believe the allegations of fraud in the 2020 Election and believe that “light” should be brought to those claims. But, a couple points are in order. First, nothing prevents a continued inquiry into those allegations by those who believe such claims, such as Congress and perhaps even by the DOJ. It is just that the power of the Grand Jury, which exists to investigate potential crimes and to bring viable indictments thereof, cannot be used as their tool to do so. Second, and relatedly, that this result is fitting is clear if one considers the alternative; otherwise, anyone in power (perhaps the next administration of a different party) could use the Grand Jury process similarly to subpoena personal information of citizens (perhaps that of their political opponents) with no legitimate law enforcement purpose. The information sought herein (names, addresses, phone numbers, emails) is private and sensitive, so much so that should a private company fail to protect such information from electronic thieves, such company would most likely be sued in a data breach class action lawsuit. Thus, everyone, whether you support the President or you do not, or whether you believe the 2020 Election was fair or believe that it was not, should be concerned about the DOJ’s ability to utilize the power of the Grand Jury to appropriate your private information without a legitimate purpose.