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A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday sided with civil rights groups that sued the Trump administration over an executive order requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her decision that the responsibility for election regulation is in the hands of the states and Congress, as stated in the Constitution, and “that the President lacks the authority to direct such changes.”
She later added, “The Constitution’s allocation of authority over federal elections between Congress and the States may not be intuitive. But it is no accident. Instead, this design was the product of carefully considered compromises among our Constitution’s Framers.”
Kollar-Kotelly also ruled that the U.S. Election Assistance Commission is permanently barred from incorporating proof of citizenship in federal voter registration.
“The court’s ruling confirms what we have long argued: the President may not rewrite election law to impose a burdensome show-your-papers rule that would shut out countless Americans from the ballot box,” reads a joint statement from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) about the ruling.
“This executive order was an attempted overreach of power, bypassing the Constitution’s clear allocation of authority to Congress and the states to set election rules,” the statement continued. “Our democracy is strongest when every eligible voter can register and vote free from expensive and unnecessary requirements.”
The lawsuit against the Trump administration was brought forth by the League of Women Voters Education Fund, League of Women Voters of the United States, League of Women Voters of Arizona, Hispanic Federation, NAACP, OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, and Asian and Pacific Islander Vote.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The New York Times that the administration will appeal the ruling.
“President Trump has exercised his lawful authority to ensure only American citizens are casting ballots in American elections,” she said.
Trump signed the executive order in March. Though the order says state governments oversee American elections, “the United States has not adequately enforced Federal election requirements that, for example, prohibit States from counting ballots received after Election Day or prohibit non-citizens from registering to vote.”
Applicants registering to vote would have to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport, Real ID or another state- or federal-issued identification that proves citizenship.
Critics said the order would result in large swaths of voters being disenfranchised.
“There are multiple problems with it,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told The Hill in April. “The president [of] United States does not control voting laws. The states control voting laws in America, and Congress can regulate, but Congress has not passed anything the president’s talking about.”
“I’ve seen voter suppression up close as someone who has run in Georgia numerous times,” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) also said in April. “Officials in Georgia looked at the anatomy of my win the first time around and they came after it with surgical precision. I had to beat them in court in order to win my race. And so we’re seeing the president play out of the same playbook writ large.”
