A federal judge tore apart Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's legal case for seizing voter data Thursday, calling his reading of the law "strange and unharmonious." "Nothing in the text of Title III compels this strange and unharmonious reading of federal election law," Moss wrote in the ruling. Moss rejected Blanche's claim that Title III gave the Justice Department a "freewheeling source of authority" to investigate any violation of federal election law. When Blanche's team called the distinction between voter registration applications and voter registration lists "pedantic," Moss was unmoved. "In light of this history, the Department's characterization of Title III's distinction between voter registration records and voter registration lists as 'pedantic' … falls flat," the judge wrote.