Judge blocks Trump administration from voting proof of citizenship implementation

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A federal judge on Wednesday permanently blocked the Trump administration’s executive order requiring proof of citizenship to vote, ruling in favor of 19 states that filed the lawsuit.

District Court Judge Denise Casper ruled that President Trump was overstepping his authority by attempting to overhaul states’ administration of federal elections.

“While the Constitution vests the President with ‘executive Power’ and commands him to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ it does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” Casper wrote in the third ruling against Trump’s March executive order.

“As a result, the President ‘plays no direct role in the process of appointing electors, ‘nor does he have authority to control the state officials who do,’” she added.

Casper cited the Constitution’s Elections Clause, which grants states the primary authority to decide how electors are chosen.

Trump’s executive order aimed to withhold federal funding from states that counted properly postmarked mail-in ballots received after Election Day and would have required proof of citizenship for all mail in voter registrations.

Attorney Generals from California, Nevada, Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin filed a lawsuit against Trump’s executive order last April.

Casper’s ruling follows a Monday order from a federal judge that struck down Trump’s March directive to create a database containing voters’ Social Security numbers, citizenship status and other sensitive data.

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