WASHINGTON – The D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday that a group seeking to block President Trump's Advisory Commission on Election Integrity from collecting voter data has suffered no direct injury from the panel's efforts and therefore has not shown that it has standing to bring such case.
Writing for the three-judge panel, U.S. Circuit Judge Stephen Williams said the Electronic Privacy Information Center is "not a voter" and represents no voters, and therefore had no standing to sue.
Williams went on to say EPIC "has suffered no informational or organizational injury from the defendants' attempt to collect voter data without first producing an assessment."
Trump created the bipartisan Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity by executive order in May. The president has claimed that thousands of people voted illegally in the 2016 election.
EPIC sued for the alleged violation of the E-Government Act, arguing the panel's request for voter information from the states was an "unlawful agency action" that should be halted.
But Williams found the group was unable to prove it had been deprived of information in the commission's study of voter data or that the act required an impact assessment in the first place.
The commission stopped collecting and analyzing voter data after EPIC filed its lawsuit in July.
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