President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 4, 2025 (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday halted key sections of President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order purporting to unilaterally change the rules regarding how federal elections are run, finding that the plaintiffs in the case were “substantially likely to prevail” on the merits.
In a 120-page order, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a preliminary injunction blocking the president’s measure that would require amending the national voter registration form to require proof of U.S. citizenship as well as a provision ordering federal agencies to “assess the citizenship” of individuals who receive public assistance before they are provided a voter registration form.
Kollar-Kotelly, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, wrote that allowing those measures to be implemented would cause “irreparable harm” to the plaintiffs and “would not be in the public interest.”
“Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States — not the President — with the authority to regulate federal elections,” the order states. “Consistent with that allocation of power, Congress is currently debating legislation that would effect many of the changes the President purports to order. And no statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order.”
The court noted that the legislation in Congress is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility [SAVE] Act, a Republican-backed measure critics have said could potentially disenfranchise millions of eligible voters. Many provisions of the SAVE Act are encompassed by Trump’s executive order.
The consolidated case challenging Trump’s Executive Order, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” was brought by three plaintiffs: two voting rights groups and the Democratic National Committee.
In their complaint, the plaintiffs claimed that the president lacks the power to issue the directives in his order, asserting that the executive has “no role in regulating federal elections” under the U.S. Constitution and relevant federal laws.
Kollar-Kotely rejected the plaintiffs’ request to block three other parts of Trump’s order because the claims were premature or were better addressed by a different court. Provisions not halted by the court include one directing the Departments of Homeland Security and State to give access to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to databases to “search for non-citizens who have registered to vote,” and two requiring states to stop counting mail-in votes received after election day or have federal funds withheld.
Trump’s order is an apparent attempt to bolster the false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election. Since his loss to Joe Biden, Trump has repeatedly promulgated erroneous conspiracy theories positing that the election was rife with voter fraud and rigged in favor of Democrats.
“[T]he United States now fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections employed by modern, developed nations, as well as those still developing,” Trump’s directive stated. “Free, fair, and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion are fundamental to maintaining our constitutional Republic. The right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted and tabulated, without illegal dilution, is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election.”
Trump has continued to promote that fictitious narrative even after he took office for the second time. Earlier this month, he wrote on social media that the war between Russia and Ukraine “would never have happened if the 2020 Election had not been RIGGED, in other words, if I were President.”
Following Kollar-Kotelly’s order, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields issued the following statement to CBS News:
“President Trump will keep fighting for election integrity, despite Democrat objections that reveal their disdain for commonsense safeguards like verifying citizenship. Free and fair elections are the bedrock of our Constitutional Republic, and we’re confident in securing an ultimate victory in the courtroom.”
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