Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP / Getty Images
Donald Trump wanted every American to prove their citizenship before registering to vote. This is now the third federal ruling against that effort.
U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston ruled Wednesday (June 24) that Trump's administration is permanently barred from implementing most of his first executive order on elections, signed in March 2025, according to the Associated Press.
The order sought to require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, block mail ballots from counting if they arrived after Election Day even when postmarked on time, and withhold federal election security grants from states that refused to comply. Casper's ruling converts a preliminary injunction she issued last June into a permanent ban.
Casper rejected the administration's argument that the lawsuit, brought by a coalition of Democratic state attorneys general, was premature simply because the rules hadn't yet taken effect. Instead, she affirmed that the Constitution gives states and Congress — not the president — authority over how elections are run.
"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 her 59-page ruling, per ABC News.
She also found that the Justice Department failed to back up its claims of "widespread illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error" that supposedly justified the order.
Casper, who was nominated to the bench by President Obama, is the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose state led the lawsuit, struck a note of caution alongside the win. "While we are proud of this result, we are clear-eyed that President Trump's attacks on voting rights and our elections show no signs of slowing down," Bonta said, per the Associated Press. "So let me be clear: we will keep fighting back every step of the way."
New York Attorney General Letitia James added: "Generations of Americans fought tirelessly for the right to vote, and we honor their legacy by protecting that right against anyone who tries to undermine it."
The White House signaled it isn't backing down. "The President's executive order lawfully protects our elections, and we are confident that we will ultimately prevail in its implementation," spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, leaving open the possibility of an appeal.
This is far from the first legal setback for Trump's election order.
According to the Associated Press, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., previously blocked the administration from adding a citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form and barred the defense secretary from demanding the same proof from military personnel registering to vote overseas.
Just two days before Casper's ruling, a separate federal judge struck down a related March directive that would have created a national database containing voters' Social Security numbers and citizenship status.
Unable to get the policy through the courts, Trump is now reportedly pushing Congress directly. The SAVE America Act, which would impose a citizenship-verification mandate by law rather than executive order, passed the House but has stalled in the Senate.
Trump has gone as far as calling for the elimination of the Senate filibuster to force it through, and on Wednesday abruptly canceled a planned signing of a bipartisan housing bill, saying he wouldn't sign any legislation until Congress passes his citizenship requirement.
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