Federal judge blocks Trump’s voter citizenship requirements in executive order

A federal judge has blocked key portions of President Trump’s executive order on voting rules, particularly the requirement for proof of citizenship when registering to vote using federal forms.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that such decisions fall under the authority of Congress or the Election Assistance Commission, not the president, stating that the Constitution entrusts election regulation to Congress and the states.

The March 25 executive order, titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” addressed the president’s longstanding concerns about noncitizen voting and states counting mail and absentee ballots received after Election Day. Mr. Trump’s order directed the Election Assistance Commission to require citizenship proof before accepting voter registrations and instructed federal agencies to assess citizenship before providing registration forms.

While blocking these provisions, Judge Kollar-Kotelly determined it was “premature” to challenge other aspects of the order, including measures to punish states for counting ballots received after Election Day. The judge also declined to rule on provisions directing the Department of Homeland Security to make immigration databases available to states for verification purposes, as well as directives for the Justice Department to share information with states for prosecuting election crimes.

The lawsuit was brought by numerous civil liberties and political organizations, including the League of United Latin American Citizens, the League of Women Voters, and the Democratic National Committee. These groups characterized the executive order as a severe attack on voting rights that targeted essentially nonexistent noncitizen voting issues while potentially disenfranchising legitimate voters.

The order reflected Mr. Trump’s previous claims about election integrity. In 2016, he attributed his popular vote loss to Hillary Clinton to noncitizen voting, and in 2020, he blamed expanded mail-in voting for his defeat to former President Joe Biden.

Norm Eisen, co-founder of the State Democracy Defenders Fund, called the ruling “a resounding victory for democracy and the rule of law.” The DNC and other Democratic organizations similarly celebrated the decision as “a huge step in the fight to protect our democracy,” stating they had “fought back using every tool at our disposal.”

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