ACLU of Nevada Seeks to Protect Voters in DOJ Lawsuit Filing

LAS VEGAS – The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and the National ACLU on Monday announced they have filed a motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit against the state of Nevada.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday announced new lawsuits against Nevada and other states as part of an ongoing effort nationwide to collect non-public information, including voters’ full names, addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers — highly sensitive data that is protected under state and federal law.

The case is United State of America v. Aguilar, Case No. 3:25-cv-728. ACLUNV’s motion to intervene can be found online here. (directs to aclunv.org)

The motion to intervene filed Sunday argues the civil rights organization should be allowed to participate in the litigation because they have a strong interest in preventing “unfettered and total access to the most sensitive aspects of Nevada’s non-public voter data from being used to harass and potentially disenfranchise voters.”

The ACLU of Nevada remains the state’s largest civil rights organizations, with more than six thousand members statewide, including a number of naturalized citizens and others whom the organization argues would be subjected to improper data disclosure if the organization’s interests are not properly represented in the matter. The ACLU of Nevada has been at the forefront of most significant voting rights issues during the last several years.

ACLU of Nevada executive director Athar Haseebullah (he/him) said:

“We will not let the federal government go unchallenged as it seeks to violate Nevadans’ civil liberties by improperly obtaining and misusing Nevada voters’ personal data to conduct mass voter purges or to build an unauthorized national database. If our motion is granted, we remain poised to defend the privacy rights of Nevadans in the face of unauthorized, improper demands by a federal government insistent on expanding its own power while undermining the privacy rights of ordinary Americans. Unchecked government power places us on a pathway to living under authoritarian rule. ACLU of Nevada will continue to challenge these practices to ensure the privacy rights of our members and Nevadans more broadly. Our Constitution was designed to protect people from the government, not empower the government to undermine the rights of the people."

The motion also cites media reports indicating that the DOJ plans to share voter data with the Department of Homeland Security to support criminal and immigration investigations and notes the involvement of people who have previously attempted to overturn election results or promoted mass voter challenges.

The ACLU Voting Rights Project has also filed motions to intervene in DOJ lawsuits over voters’ private data in Maryland, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Oregon, California, and Minnesota.