Trump Loses 13th Straight Attempt to Get State Voter Rolls 72%

By Robert McCoy94%

7/13/2026, 9:00:48 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Availability Heuristic, and Confirmation Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 60.1% saturation with 175 hits. Analysis detected 1,391 faulty-reasoning hits from 291 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 63.9% and a BS Rank of 72% (6,336 of 21,887 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 71.10% of the article peer group.

The Trump administration’s Justice Department has filed 31 federal lawsuits seeking to force 30 states and Washington, D.C., to hand over their unredacted voter rolls. 
As of Monday afternoon, its record is 0-13 . 
On Monday, Judge Thomas E. 
Johnston of the U.S. 
District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia dismissed the federal government’s attempt to acquire sensitive voter information from the state. 
The judge, an appointee of George W. 
Bush, ruled that the Trump administration’s demand was legally deficient. 
It failed to provide a “factual basis” and “statement of purpose,” as are required by the statute invoked by the administration, Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960. 
For that reason, he wrote, the government had “failed to state a claim.” 
The growing string of defeats suggests the administration is simply throwing lawsuits against the wall to see what sticks. 
None have so far. 
In the 13 rulings against the administration thus far, judges appointed by various presidents, including Donald Trump himself, shot down his administration’s attempts to acquire voter data—which anti-authoritarian advocacy group Protect Democracy has described as “an unprecedented and unconstitutional incursion” that seeks to set the stage for “purges of eligible voters, election subversion in 2026, and the invasion of fundamental privacy rights.” 
A scathing footnote in Johnston’s ruling lays bare the groundlessness of the Trump administration’s crusade: “Given the lack of an adequate basis or purpose, one is left to wonder what the real purpose was for the Justice Department to go to the trouble of filing civil actions like this one all around the nation,” the judge wrote. 
“Troubling though this question is, it is not before the Court at this time.” 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 33.7%Robert McCoy: 9.2%newrepublic.com: 6.1%Confirmation Bias33.7%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 1.1%newrepublic.com: 0.5%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 37.5%Robert McCoy: 8.0%newrepublic.com: 3.3%Availability Heuristic37.5%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 1.3%newrepublic.com: 1.0%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 1.9%newrepublic.com: 0.8%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 2.0%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 32.3%Robert McCoy: 19.0%newrepublic.com: 8.0%Framing Effect32.3%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.4%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.3%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.1%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 1.0%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 26.1%Robert McCoy: 3.7%newrepublic.com: 2.5%Pessimism Bias26.1%This article: 60.1%Robert McCoy: 34.2%newrepublic.com: 13.3%Negativity Bias60.1%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.9%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 6.5%Robert McCoy: 5.1%newrepublic.com: 2.0%Fundamental Attribution Error6.5%This article: 2.4%Robert McCoy: 0.3%newrepublic.com: 0.2%Actor-Observer Bias2.4%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 2.1%newrepublic.com: 1.7%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 21.3%Robert McCoy: 5.2%newrepublic.com: 1.0%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias21.3%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 1.2%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 2.2%newrepublic.com: 0.6%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 7.9%Robert McCoy: 1.1%newrepublic.com: 1.4%Recency Bias7.9%This article: 3.4%Robert McCoy: 0.5%newrepublic.com: 0.5%Primacy Effect3.4%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 8.4%newrepublic.com: 3.8%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 21.3%Robert McCoy: 3.0%newrepublic.com: 1.1%Straw Man21.3%This article: 12.7%Robert McCoy: 8.3%newrepublic.com: 3.4%Appeal to Authority12.7%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 1.9%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 3.0%newrepublic.com: 2.0%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.3%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 10.0%Robert McCoy: 5.7%newrepublic.com: 8.0%Hasty Generalization10.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.3%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 1.3%newrepublic.com: 0.6%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 40.9%Robert McCoy: 13.3%newrepublic.com: 6.3%Appeal to Emotion40.9%This article: 6.5%Robert McCoy: 0.9%newrepublic.com: 1.8%Begging the Question6.5%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 2.4%newrepublic.com: 3.2%Post Hoc (False Cause)0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.3%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.8%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.1%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.3%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 29.9%Robert McCoy: 4.2%newrepublic.com: 2.0%Anecdotal29.9%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.2%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 1.7%newrepublic.com: 1.8%Ambiguity (Equivocation)0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.3%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.2%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 0.0%newrepublic.com: 0.3%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 28.9%Robert McCoy: 6.2%newrepublic.com: 2.3%Unattributed Quote28.9%This article: 30.6%Robert McCoy: 7.4%newrepublic.com: 1.6%Quote-first Misdirection30.6%This article: 32.6%Robert McCoy: 48.8%newrepublic.com: 15.5%Biased Writer Voice32.6%This article: 0.0%Robert McCoy: 1.7%newrepublic.com: 2.4%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 21.3%Robert McCoy: 14.8%newrepublic.com: 7.2%Politically Left Leaning Bias21.3%This article: 8.6%Robert McCoy: 2.3%newrepublic.com: 0.6%Politically Right Leaning Bias8.6%This article: 3.4%Robert McCoy: 1.6%newrepublic.com: 0.3%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…3.4%

291 words analyzed.

Speakers

3speakers20%attributed speech232writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 10 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 25 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 9 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 5 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 4 words • 0.0% coverageDistrict Court for the Southern District of West Virginia • 22 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 7 words • 0.0% coverageGeorge W. Bush • 10 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 30 words • 0.0% coverageThomas E. Johnston • 13 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 19 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 4 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 62 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 57 words • 100.0% coverageThomas E. Johnston • 14 words • 100.0% coverage
Selected voice

Thomas E. Johnston

100%flagged-word coverage
27 attributed words46% of attributed speech96% writer coverage
0%50.0%100.0%Unattributed Quote+75.4 ptsWriter: 24.6%Thomas E. Johnston: 100.0%100.0%Quote-first Misdirection+73.3 ptsWriter: 26.7%Thomas E. Johnston: 100.0%100.0%Biased Writer Voice-40.9 ptsWriter: 40.9%Thomas E. Johnston: 0.0%0.0%Politically Left Leaning B-26.7 ptsWriter: 26.7%Thomas E. Johnston: 0.0%0.0%Politically Right Leaning -10.8 ptsWriter: 10.8%Thomas E. Johnston: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.