A federal judge temporarily blocked parts of President Trump’s executive order demanding that proof of citizenship be added to some federal voting forms Thursday.
In her lengthy ruling, U.S. district judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly dismissed the administration’s argument that the power of the presidency entitles him to tinker with voting requirements.
“The President has no constitutional power over election regulation that would support this unilateral exercise of authority,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote. “The Constitution vests that power in the States and Congress alone.”
She blocked the two sections of the order numerous voting groups had challenged: one requiring that the Election Assistance Commission, an independent executive branch agency, add the proof of citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form, and one requiring the various agencies that dispense public assistance to assess each individual’s citizenship before giving them voting forms.
A coterie of national Democratic organizations also challenged other parts of the order that Kollar-Kotelly did not enjoin, including the order that the EAC cut off federal funds for states that accept ballots sent before but delivered after Election Day, and the mandate that the attorney general enforce the executive order.
On the former, she wrote that states were the more natural plaintiffs in that claim (many of which have challenged the order in a parallel, separate case). On the latter, she questioned the feasibility of the attorney general taking action under the Election Day statutes, and reasoned that she could comply with the order and the law with lower-level enforcement, like sending states letters urging compliance.
In Kollar-Kotelly’s order, she bolstered the independence of the EAC, writing that “the President lacks the authority to direct the outcome of the rulemaking process that Congress has assigned to the EAC.”
She also dinged the administration for making misrepresentations to court. In a revelation shortly before a hearing earlier this month, the voting group plaintiffs produced proof that the head of the EAC was already reaching out to state election officials for guidance about how to put the citizenship requirement into effect — despite claiming to the Court that implementation of the order had not yet begun.
The order is part of a bundle of actions Trump and Republicans in Congress have taken that, if successful, could suppress voting in the 2026 elections. House Republicans have also passed voter restrictions in the SAVE Act (Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has vowed that the bill, which would need Democratic votes to overcome a filibuster, will not pass in the upper chamber). And Trump has signed a different executive order targeting the Federal Election Commission, which is also being litigated.
Read the ruling here:
