Washington:
A US judge on Thursday partially blocked an executive order by President Donald Trump that aimed to wipe out election reform, the latest legal setback that enacted his agenda.
Judge Colleen Collee Cottery specifically prevented the Trump administration from requiring voters to provide evidence of U.S. citizenship when registering for a ballot at the state level.
The executive order, signed at the end of March, set its sights on the restrictions on mail-in voting that Trump has been criticising for many years.
The order faced legal challenges as soon as it was signed, and the Democrats themselves began court cases against it.
Kollar-Kotelly justified enacting a provisional injunction against Trump’s order by arguing that “in a further review of merit, the plaintiffs are likely to win in effect.”
“Our constitution entrusts Congress and the state with powers to regulate federal elections, not the president,” she wrote in her 120-page decision.
Kollar-Kotelly refused to block another important part of the executive order. This has called for the state to impose a mail-in voting deadline that coincides with the end of the vote on Election Day.
Although US citizenship requires you to vote in federal elections, not all states require voters to bring documents proof of their citizenship status. Instead, choose another verification method.
States that have failed to comply with executive orders are threatened with cuts in federal election funds.
Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, describes the executive order as “dangerous” because it “can deprive millions of voters.”
In a March post on his election law blog, Hasen called Trump’s order a “glove of enforcement,” saying “federal elections are primarily the responsibility of the states, and Congress has set rules for the implementation of elections.”
Trump never admitted defeat in the 2020 presidential election against Joe Biden, and repeatedly claimed unfounded voter fraud, regardless of basis.
Since returning to the White House on Jan. 20, the 78-year-old Republican has issued dozens of executive orders, many of which face legal challenges.
Recently, on Thursday, a judge blocked the Trump administration from withholding federal funds from so-called “sanctuary cities” that provide immigration safeguards.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published by Syndicate Feed.)
