Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked parts of President Donald Trump’s executive order to secure our elections and provide proof of citizenship to vote.
Democrats and nonprofits immediately sued Trump over the order because minorities and women are apparently too stupid to get an ID.
Kollar-Kotelly granted a preliminary injunction regarding Sections 2(a) and 2(d).
“But the defendants’ threshold arguments falter with respect to the plaintiffs’ challenges to Sections 2(a) and 2(d),” wrote Kollar-Kotelly. “And on the merits, the plaintiffs are substantially likely to prevail: Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States—not the President—with the authority to regulate federal elections. Consistent with that allocation of power, Congress is currently debating legislation that would effect many of the changes the President purports to order.”
The judge stopped those ordered in Section 2(a) from “taking any action…to modify the content of the federal voter registration application form described in 52 U.S.C. § 20508(a)(2) to require documentary proof of United States citizenship.”
Section 2(a) lists the many forms and documents a person needs to register to vote.
The plaintiffs also received a preliminary injunction on Section 2(d):
Defendants Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of the Interior, Small Business Administration, Peter Hegseth in his official capacity as Secretary of Defense, Douglas Collins in his official capacity as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Douglas Burgum in his official capacity as Secretary of the Interior, and Kelly Loeffler in her official capacity as Small Business Administrator, are PRELIMINARILY ENJOINED from taking any action to implement or give effect to Section 2(d) of Executive Order 14,248, including failing to provide the federal voter registration application form described in 52 U.S.C. § 20508(a)(2) or an equivalent form to any applicant for service or assistance based on an inability to “assess citizenship.”
Kollar-Kotelly denied the injunction request for Sections 2(b), 7(a), and 7(b).
“On the present record, challenges to those provisions are premature or properly presented not by these plaintiffs but by the States themselves,” explained the judge. “In fact, many States are already bringing those challenges elsewhere.”
Section 2(b) required DHS and the State Department to identify unqualified voters registered in the states.
Sections 7(a) and 7(b) addressed compliance with the law. Trump ordered the attorney general to “take all necessary action to enforce” two laws against any state that violates the executive order. He also told the Election Assistance Commission to determine funding for any state that does not comply with his law.
So, yeah, this is another Trump order tied up in the courts. It might take a bit for it to go into effect.
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