In this AP file photo from July 8, 2017, Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap speaks during a voter registration meeting at the National Association of Secretaries of State conference in Indianapolis.

Augusta, Maine ? A federal judge has ruled that Maine’s secretary of state can’t be excluded from participating in the work of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, on which he serves.

A U.S. District Court judge’s ruling Friday in Washington largely agrees with Matthew Dunlap’s argument that as a commission member, he must be given access to substantive documents.

The opinion says Dunlap should have been granted access to documents such as a request for voter data sent to U.S. states and meeting agendas. Dunlap said the ruling is “a clear vindication of what I have fought for.”

He filed suit in November, contending the commission violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act by denying him and other members access to key documents and excluding them from much of the commission’s work.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who serves as the commission’s vice chair, previously blasted the lawsuit as “baseless and paranoid.”