Left: Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump listens at a business roundtable discussion at a campaign event at Precision Components Group, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in York, Pa. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson). Right: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks at the NAACP Detroit branch Fight for Freedom Fund dinner in Detroit, Sunday, May 19, 2024 (AP Photo/Paul Sancya).
The legal team for the Donald Trump presidential campaign scored a win Thursday when a judge denied a veteran rights group’s request to intervene in his voter registration lawsuit against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Trump’s lawsuit filed last month accuses Whitmer of illegally allowing voter registration at places such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and Small Business Administration. Whitmer last year issued an executive directive to designate Saginaw VA Medical Center, the Detroit VA Medical Center and the department’s Detroit regional office as voter registration agencies. She also allowed people to register to vote at the state Department of Health and Human Services and Housing Development Authority, among others.
The progressive Vet Voice Foundation said in a memorandum in support of motion to intervene that the lawsuit succeeding would make it harder for veterans to vote.
But U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney denied the request, saying in the 9-page ruling that intervention by Vet Voice would be “unnecessary and burdensome.” However he will allow the organization to file briefs as amicus curiae in the case.
On Monday, lawyers for the former president said Vet Voice had no reason to intervene:
The central issue in this case — as it relates to Vet Voice — is whether Michigan’s Governor had the authority to designate the Department of Veterans Affairs (‘VA’) as a Voter Registration Agency (‘VRA’) within the meaning of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (‘NVRA’). Michigan’s Governor purported to make that designation about eight months ago. So, if Plaintiffs prevailed in this action, it would simply return things to the status quo prior to December 18, 2023. Put another way, a Judgement in Plaintiffs’ favor would make registering to vote no harder for veterans than it was for the 93 years between the VA’s formation and the Governor’s ultra vires Executive Directive.
Vet Voice is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, although it tends to take progressive stances on certain issues. It came out in support of the VA when the agency said it would provide abortion services to members after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The organization is represented in the Michigan case by Marc Elias’ firm. Elias recently joined Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ election legal team and joined the Joe Biden campaign’s efforts to ward off Trump’s post-2020 election lawsuits.
In Monday’s filing, Trump’s lawyers went on to say Vet Voice had no “valid interests that would be impaired by the case” and those interests would not be much different from those of the plaintiffs.
“Moreover, adding more parties serves no purpose other than to complicate the litigation, delay proceedings, inflate expenses, and encumber the parties and the Court with more filings,” they wrote.
The plaintiffs also pointed out that the U.S. Department of Justice opposes the motion to intervene. In an Aug. 7 filing, the DOJ said while it opposes the intervention it “would welcome Vet Voice’s active participation in this case as amicus curiae.” DOJ lawyers have said they would “vigorously defend” the suit.
Vet Voice said the lawsuit should be dismissed based on the 11th Amendment, which limits the ability of people to sue states in federal court if they are not citizens of that state.
“Rather than celebrating Michigan’s effort to encourage voter registration, Plaintiffs have sued to stop it,” lawyers wrote, adding that adding agencies such as the VA and SBA as registration sites “in no way injures them.”
Whitmer has until Friday to file her response to the lawsuit. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and elections chief Jonathan Brater are also named in the suit.
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