Overview
- U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued an 81-page ruling barring the administration from forcing the Elections Assistance Commission to add a documentary proof requirement to the national mail registration form.
- Trump’s March executive order had directed the EAC to mandate proof of U.S. citizenship within 30 days and to have officials record the type and date of applicants’ documentation.
- The opinion stressed that the Constitution assigns election regulation to states and Congress and that the bipartisan EAC, created by Congress, cannot be unilaterally directed by the White House.
- The ruling follows an April temporary block by the same judge and a separate Massachusetts decision that suspended other provisions of the executive order.
- Democrats and voting-rights groups who brought the consolidated suits say such documentation rules would burden registration, while Republicans press the SAVE Act as a legislative path to require proof of citizenship.