A divided federal appeals court panel on June 24 upheld a block preventing the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) from obtaining Michigan’s voter rolls.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled 2–1 that the DOJ lacks authority under Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to demand that Michigan hand over its full, unredacted statewide voter registration database. The ruling upholds a prior order issued by U.S. District Judge Hala Jarbou.

The U.S. Constitution gives states authority to administer federal elections within their borders, but the federal government retains some oversight authority.

President Donald Trump has said states aren’t doing all they can to prevent ineligible individuals from voting. He has urged his fellow Republicans to “nationalize” and “take over” voting.

“Congress enacted Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to help end voting discrimination,” Circuit Judge Andre Mathis wrote in the majority opinion.

“Title III of the Act gave teeth to prior civil-rights legislation by empowering the U.S. Attorney General to obtain certain state voting records so that he could investigate potential violations and enforce federal election law. Back then, the government used this power to ensure that everyone who had the right to vote could freely exercise that right. But today, the government invokes Title III for an inverse purpose—to ensure that some people have not voted.”

Mathis said that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was legally justified in withholding the requested materials because the DOJ did not comply with a requirement in the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which states that the agency must file a statement explaining “both the basis and purpose of its request.”

This means “Benson did not violate Title III by refusing to produce the unredacted qualified voter file,” he said.

In his dissenting opinion, Circuit Judge John Nalbandian wrote that the majority interpreted the law too narrowly, and that the DOJ had “stated a proper basis and purpose.”

The Trump administration has been trying to increase the role of the federal government in elections. The DOJ has filed a multitude of lawsuits in an effort to get 30 states and the District of Columbia to submit their voter records.

The DOJ says it needs the unredacted lists to ascertain whether the states are doing enough to take ineligible voters off the rolls.

Since last year, the DOJ has asked almost all 50 states to provide access to their voter lists, including sensitive identifying information such as birthdates, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers. At least 17 Republican-led states voluntarily supplied the information, though many states have declined the request, saying that supplying the data would violate voters’ privacy rights.

So far, the federal government has lost all nine cases addressing this issue that have been decided by federal district courts. Today’s ruling is the first case lost at the federal appellate court level. Appeals remain pending in three other federal courts of appeals.

Reuters contributed to this report.