And now it's time for our daily Bloomberg labbrare for exploring legal issues in the news. And Today Bloomberg lawho Student Grosso and Greg Stuart discuss a victory for President Trump's Voter Fraud Commission after a federal judge cleared the way for the panel to gather personal data on voters.
They speak with David Becker, founder and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, and Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation and a member of President Trump's Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. David, how did the judge reach her decision,
particularly regarding the infringement of privacy rights? Well, I think, UM, some of the statements made by UM by the commission UH confirmed that this is just a request that UH there were some options that UM I think they might have been storing the information in a way that at least the judge seemed satisfied UH might be might sufficiently protect privacy rights. I think there's still some questions out
there with regard to that. I think that given that it was just a request, given that some of this information was public, what she found at this point was there wasn't enough evidence to grant a temporary restraining extraining order or a preliminary injunction, and found that at least at this point the plaintiffs were not likely to um to win on the merits. I think, you know. One of the things that was was was heavily stressed in her opinion though, was that this is only a request,
that there is not a demand for information. And then there's another question which will have to answer um at some point, which is is this information going to be any of any use at all to determine anything related to election integrity? And so let me just ask you to start with the practical implications. What what does this opinion, this decision from Judge Clarke Telly give the Commission that
it might not not have had beforehand. Well, it was an obviously obviously logical decision because if you look at the letter that was sent out by the Commission, uh, they asked for publicly available information. So the idea that somehow there was going to be some huge invasion of privacy is just not true. All of the states provide
this very same information. For example, I mean, if you go to the website of the State Election Board of Virginia, and remember Terry mccaullus, the governor, was one of the people that was outraged at this. You'll find that they have a couple of pages where they talk about how uh they provide information registered voters, list um voting history, to political parties, candidates, uh, nonprofit organizations, members of the public.
So all the commission was asking for was the same kind of publicly available information that these states already provide basically to anyone who walks in the door. That's David Becker, founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, and Hans von spakov Ski, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation and a member of President Trump's Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Is spoke with Bloomberg
Law host doom Grasso and Greg's store. You can listen to Bloomberg Law weekdays at one pm Wall Street Time here on Bloomberg Radio. And among the top legal stories from Bloomberg Law, Celgene has agreed to pay two hundred eighty million dollars to settle a whistle blower fraud lawsuit a former employees as the company used illegal claims desern its cancer drugs into blockbuster sellers. Celgene denies the allegations,
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