LINCOLN, Neb. (CN) - Nebraska defended its decision last month to send voter data to the U.S. Department of Justice, telling the state's high court Tuesday it didn't give the federal government any new information.

"The only thing that comes close would be the state's driver's license number," Cody Barnett, the Cornhusker State's solicitor general, told the Nebraska Supreme Court. "But social security numbers, the federal government generates those. And so most of this information the federal government could get access to another way."

Daniel Gutman, who represents grassroots voter organization Common Cause Nebraska, argued the disclosure of voters' full name, address, date of birth and driver's license number enables the feds to create new profiles.

"It's the compilation of data. It's the profile of a person. I think that the federal government can find my social security number. But they can't link the entire profile of my name, date of birth and current address," Gutman said. "Now, the federal government has an entire profile of our clients, which state law doesn't contemplate that they would have."

The arguments came in a case where Nebraska voter Dawn Essink sued in September 2025 to prevent her personal information from being sent to the Justice Department. Earlier that month, the department demanded a roster of every voter in the state with their full name, date of birth, address, driver's license number and the last four digits of their social security number.

It was part of a nationwide effort to collect the data, reportedly with a goal of sharing it with immigration officials to determine if noncitizens are unlawfully registered and voting.

The DOJ's demand has been litigated extensively, with Democratic states fighting the effort in court, citing privacy concerns. Some GOP-dominated states have also pushed back, while others have cooperated.

Plaintiffs in Nebraska sued in Lancaster County District Court, where the state capital city of Lincoln is located, claiming that officials could not legally share private information.

Secretary of State Robert Evnen initially delayed handing over the data due to the lawsuit, but a lower court tossed the case last month due to lack of standing. Three days after the plaintiffs appealed directly to the state Supreme Court, Evnen turned the information over Feb. 12.

The secretary of state noted the feds did not request party affiliation, voter history, maiden names, places of birth or contact information, so that information was not included.

In front of the justices Tuesday, Gutman argued both Common Cause and Essink have standing under the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act, which treats releasing information to any third party the same as releasing it to the public.

What if Evnen announced he was going to release the entire voter file to an internet hacker, he asked?

"Under the district court's reasoning, nobody in this state would have the standing to sue, under the UDJA, Secretary Evnen and prevent him from doing that because a hacker ... is not the public," he said. "We think that that is an absurd result that just cannot stand."

Barnett disagreed and said Essink has not specified what harms would be caused by the sharing of their information. A private entity is not reviewing the information, he said.

"They are agents of Homeland Security," Barnett said. "The Department of Homeland Security is not a faceless, nameless contractor where the sensitivity of her information is threatened. We are talking about the federal government."

Mootness was also an issue, since the information in question was already in the DOJ's hands. Chief Justice Jeffrey J. Funke asked Gutman about it early in his argument. Gutman said the case was not moot, and was subject to judicial review.

"If the federal government comes knocking, whether it's the present administration or some other administration in the future, those voter files must be turned over," Gutman said. "This is not a hypothetical pre-enforcement challenge. It has been done. And it carries the force of law."

Barnett said the case was mooted when Evnen turned the data over to the feds.

"This court resolves live controversies, not abstract legal questions," he said.

There was no obvious direction the court was going in, though justices tended to ask Gutman more questions than Barnett. All seven justices were appointed by Republican governors in a conservative state.

This is not the first time federal officials have sought Nebraska's voting data. In 2017, during President Donald Trump's first term, his Presidential Commission on Election Integrity sought information - including party affiliation - across the country, including in Nebraska. The secretary of state at the time, John Gale, did not turn the information over.

Gale, a longtime GOP official in the Cornhusker State, said he believed it was unlikely the commission would use it in a manner congruent with state law.

Trump has repeatedly made evidence-free claims about scores of immigrants without legal status voting in U.S. elections. In fact, various studies have found that to be extremely rare. A study of the 2016 election by the Brennan Center for Justice found just 0.0001% of the 23.5 million votes cast in 42 jurisdictions surveyed were suspected incidents of noncitizen voting.

Source: Courthouse News Service