Civil Rights Act of 1960

The Civil Rights Act of 1960 is a federal statute enacted during the Eisenhower administration that, among other provisions, granted the federal government authority to inspect local voter registration records and take action against discriminatory practices. The Trump DOJ has invoked it in 2026 as one of the statutory bases for its campaign of lawsuits against state voter-roll maintenance practices.

The 1960 Act predates the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 and was passed in response to Southern states' systematic exclusion of Black voters through administrative mechanisms. Its record-inspection provisions were a federal tool to counteract local resistance. In its 2026 application, the DOJ has argued that these provisions give it standing to challenge how states maintain their voter registration rolls, including the purging of voters that critics say disenfranchises eligible citizens.

The Massachusetts federal court ruling on 15 April 2026 that struck down a DOJ voter-roll suit — the first such setback in the current campaign — has sharpened the debate about whether the 1960 Act actually supports the DOJ's theory of the case. Democracy Forward's FOIA suit targets the internal legal reasoning behind the litigation strategy, in part to expose whether DOJ lawyers themselves believe the 1960 Act provides the authority they claim.