Nebraska State Capitol looking toward the northeast. (Jeff Motz/KFOR News)LINCOLN–(Nebraska Examiner June 26)–The appeal over the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office releasing the state’s sensitive voter registration data to the U.S. Department of Justice was dismissed Friday by the State S upreme Court. The Nebraska Examiner reports the court in its ruling wrote, “because Nebraska’s voter registration list has already been released to the DOJ, this matter is moot, and we decline to apply the public interest exception to the mootness doctrine. As such, the appeal and cross-appeal are dismissed.” The lawsuit was brought by the voting advocacy group Common Cause and Omaha voter Dawn Essink against Secretary of State Bob Evnen last fall. In February, a Lancaster County District Court judge ruled that Common Cause lacked standing to sue because the alleged harm was speculative and not imminent. Shortly after that ruling, Evnen released the voter data to the federal government. The plaintiffs’ attorneys asked the high court to reverse the Lancaster County decision in February. Attorneys for the state argued the lower court’s decision should be affirmed, saying it was too late to stop the data from being shared. The Trump administration has asked states for detailed information from state voter rolls, including names, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers, saying they want the information to ensure accurate voter registrations. The state Supreme Court agreed to hear the case but denied an injunction request that would have prevented Evnen from giving the voter data to the Justice Department. Nebraska is one of 16 states that handed over their complete voter lists, while three states have sent only data already publicly available or instructions on how to obtain it. The Justice Department has requested voter data from nearly every state and Washington, D.C.   ...read more read less