A federal judge on Friday blocked key provisions of President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to make it harder to register to vote in federal elections, including a requirement for voters to prove their citizenship.
Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Denise Casper wrote in the ruling that the Constitution gives the power to regulate elections to Congress, adding that lawmakers have not passed any laws that authorize Trump’s actions or otherwise delegate their authority to the president.
Casper, an Obama appointee, blocked parts of Trump’s March order that directed federal and local officials to require documentary proof of citizenship when people register to vote and to assess citizenship before distributing voter registration forms at designated public assistance agencies, such as Medicaid offices. Those parts of Trump’s executive order have also been blocked by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., in a separate lawsuit filed by voting rights groups and Democratic party officials.
The latest ruling by Casper, which came in a case brought by the Democratic attorneys general in 19 states, went further to block most of Trump’s executive order. Casper’s decision bars enforcement of another provision that required proof of citizenship from military members and citizens living abroad. And it blocks provisions seeking to prevent states from counting ballots that were mailed on or before Election Day, but arrive afterward; and from allowing voters to fix timely submitted ballots that include minor, technical mistakes.
“Only Congress has the power to adjust state election rules,” Casper wrote, noting that the legislature “has done so through its enactment of” the National Voter Registration Act and other laws.
“Defendants cannot point to any source of authority for the President to impose” the new requirements in the executive order, the judge wrote.
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