articleFILE – Pre-registering to vote during a vote drive as part of National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020, at Democracy Preparatory Academy at Agassi Campus, in Las Vegas. (Benjamin Hager/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service v
A federal judge on Friday ruled the Trump administration cannot require voters to produce documented proof of citizenship on their registration.
The judge ruled that President Donald Trump’s proof-of-citizenship directive is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers.
What they’re saying:
“Because our Constitution assigns responsibility for election regulation to the States and to Congress, this Court holds that the President lacks the authority to direct such changes,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her opinion.
She further emphasized that on matters related to setting qualifications for voting and regulating federal election procedures, “the Constitution assigns no direct role to the President in either domain.”
Trump’s executive order overhauling elections
The backstory:
In March of this year, Trump signed an executive order that would have required documented proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.
The order claimed the U.S. failed “to enforce basic and necessary election protections” and calls on states to work with federal agencies to share voter lists and prosecute election crimes.
A judge blocked this order, however, in April.
The other side:
A lawsuit brought by the DNC and various civil rights groups will continue to play out to allow the judge to consider other challenges to Trump’s order. That includes a requirement that all mailed ballots be received, rather than just postmarked, by Election Day.
Other lawsuits against Trump’s election executive order are ongoing.
In early April, 19 Democratic state attorneys general asked a separate federal court to reject Trump’s executive order. Washington and Oregon, where virtually all voting is done with mailed ballots, followed with their own lawsuit against the order.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from The Associated Press and previous reporting by FOX News.