Judge halts parts of Trump’s overhaul of US elections, including
proof-of-citizenship requirement
[April 25, 2025]
By ALI SWENSON
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration
from immediately enacting certain changes to how federal elections are
run, including adding a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal
voter registration form.
The decision is a setback for President Donald Trump, who has argued the
requirement is needed to restore public confidence in elections. But the
judge allowed other parts of Trump's sweeping executive order on U.S.
elections to go forward for now, including a directive to tighten mail
ballot deadlines around the country.
Trump's March executive order overhauling how U.S. elections are run
prompted swift lawsuits from the League of United Latin American
Citizens, the League of Women Voters Education Fund, the Democratic
National Committee and others, who called it unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington sided with
voting rights groups and Democrats, saying that the Constitution gives
the power to regulate federal elections to states and Congress — not the
president. She noted federal lawmakers are currently working on their
own legislation to require proof of citizenship to vote.
In a 120-page decision on Thursday, she said the plaintiffs had proven
that the proof-of-citizenship requirement would cause their clients
irreparable harm and go against the public interest, while the
government had offered “almost no defense of the President’s order on
the merits.”
Accordingly, she granted a preliminary injunction to stop the
citizenship requirement from moving forward while the lawsuit plays out.
The judge also blocked part of the Republican president’s order
requiring public assistance enrollees to have their citizenship assessed
before getting access to the federal voter registration form.
But she denied other requests from a group of Democratic plaintiffs,
including refusing to block Trump's order to require all mailed ballots
to be received by Election Day nationwide. She also did not touch
Trump's order to open certain databases to billionaire Elon Musk's
Department of Government Efficiency to allow it to review state voter
lists to search for noncitizens. The judge said those arguments brought
by Democrats were either premature or should be brought by states
instead.
The plaintiffs had argued Trump's proof-of-citizenship requirement
violated the Constitution’s so-called Elections Clause, which gives
states and Congress the authority to determine how elections are run.
They also argued that Trump’s order asserts power that he does not have
over an independent agency. That agency, the U.S. Election Assistance
Commission, sets voluntary voting system guidelines and maintains the
federal voter registration form.
During an April 17 hearing, attorneys for the plaintiffs had said
requiring proof of citizenship on the federal voter registration form
would complicate their clients’ voter registration drives at grocery
stores and other public places.
Aria Branch, counsel for the Democratic National Committee and other
Democratic plaintiffs, also argued the executive order’s effort to
tighten mail ballot deadlines would irreparably harm her clients by
forcing them to reallocate resources to help voters navigate the
changes.
“That’s time, money and organizational resources and strategy that can’t
be recouped,” she said.
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A voter picks up a sticker after voting at a polling place, March 5,
2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
Michael Gates, counsel for the Trump administration, said in the
hearing a preliminary injunction wasn’t warranted because the order
hadn’t been implemented and a citizenship requirement would not be
on the federal voter registration form for many months.
Roman Palomares, president of the League of United Latin American
Citizens, a nonpartisan plaintiff, said Thursday the judge's
decision was a “victory for voters.”
“Efforts to silence the voice and votes of the U.S. electorate must
not stand because our democracy depends on all voters feeling
confident that they can vote freely and that their vote will be
counted accurately,” he said in a statement.
Representing the Democratic plaintiffs, Branch said in a Thursday
statement that “this fight is far from over” but called the ruling a
“victory for democracy and the rule of law over presidential
overreach."
The chairs of the DNC, Democratic Governors Association and
Democratic committees in Congress said if the judge hadn't ruled in
their favor on citizenship proof, “Americans across the country —
including married women who changed their last name and low-income
individuals — could have been unable to register to vote.”
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said it was
disappointed by the ruling.
“Few things are more sacred to a free society or more essential to
democracy than the protection of its election systems,” said Harmeet
Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights.
Donald Palmer, chair of the EAC, a defendant in the case, said his
office was still reviewing the ruling and opinion “but we will
comply with the Judge's decision.”
The judge's decision comes as state and local election officials
from across the country are meeting to consider the implications of
Trump’s executive order on their work.
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Standards Board, which was
holding a public hearing in North Carolina on Thursday, is a
bipartisan advisory group of election officials from every state
that meets annually.
Meanwhile, other lawsuits against Trump’s order are still pending.
In early April, 19 Democratic attorneys general asked the court to
reject Trump’s executive order. Washington and Oregon, which both
hold all-mail elections, followed with their own lawsuit against the
order.
The U.S. differs from many other countries in that it does not hold
national elections run by the federal government. Instead, elections
are decentralized — overseen by the states and run by thousands of
local jurisdictions.
___
Associated Press writer Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta contributed
reporting.
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