A federal judge has permanently blocked the Trump administration from enforcing most of its first executive order on elections, including a provision that would have required documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration.
U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper in Boston issued the permanent injunction on Wednesday, converting a preliminary block from a year prior into a final ban. The ruling found that the Constitution grants states and Congress the authority to regulate elections, and that the president overstepped his bounds.
"(The Constitution) does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” Judge Casper wrote. She rejected the administration’s argument that the lawsuit filed by Democratic state attorneys general was premature, as the rules had not yet been implemented.
Among other measures, Trump's order had sought to prevent mail ballots from being counted if they arrived after Election Day, even if postmarked by the deadline, and to penalize states that did not comply by withholding federal funding.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, in a statement, expressed gratitude for the court’s decision, calling it a block of an "unconstitutional attempt to seize control of our elections." She affirmed a commitment to defending voting rights.
This decision is the latest in a series of legal challenges against the executive order, which President Trump signed early in his second term. He has since issued another executive order concerning elections, aiming to establish a national voter list and restrict mail-in balloting, which also faces legal opposition. Previously, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., had blocked the government from including the proof-of-citizenship requirement on the federal voter registration form and later barred the Secretary of Defense from imposing such a requirement on military personnel.
In an effort to advance the proof-of-citizenship mandate legislatively, Trump has been advocating for the SAVE America Act, which has passed the House but stalled in the Senate. He has reportedly linked the signing of a bipartisan housing bill to the passage of his voting requirement.
The U.S. Supreme Court is also expected to rule soon on a separate major voting case concerning whether mail ballots must arrive by Election Day, a decision that could impact the rules in 14 states with grace periods for late-arriving ballots.