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Ethics Complaint

Update: Victory for Citizens Seeking to Vote in Federal Elections

June 28, 2021

Dec 10, 2025

Editorial credit: Shutterstock

As we reported in August, LDAD filed an amicus brief in an important case challenging President Trump’s Executive Order that would restrict the number of citizens who could register to vote in federal elections.

Specifically, the Executive Order sought to change the congressionally authorized Federal Form for registering to vote in federal elections. The existing form allowed applicants to prove citizenship without documentary proof; under the Executive Order, specific documentary evidence would be required to prove citizenship. The likely practical effect of this requirement would be to reduce the number of eligible voters, both because of the extremely limited forms of evidence that would be acceptable and because plaintiff organizations would have to divert scarce resources to help a smaller number of citizens comply with the documentation mandate, rather than helping more citizens register.

Plaintiffs, including the League of Latin American Citizens, argued that the Order was an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers because the Constitution gives only Congress federal authority to regulate federal elections, not the President.

LDAD’s brief had presented arguments why, if the court found that the documentary evidence requirement was unconstitutional, the needed remedy was to enjoin implementing the requirement nationwide to provide “complete relief” to the plaintiff organizations and their hundreds of thousands of members around the country. LDAD distinguished this situation from “universal injunctions” barred in the Supreme Court’s CASA decision.

LDAD is pleased to report that the federal district court in D.C. agreed with plaintiffs that the Executive Order’s documentary evidence requirement violated separation of powers and permanently enjoined the Federal Defendants from taking “any action to implement” the Order’s documentary evidence requirement. This injunction is critical to preventing the President from unconstitutionally interfering with citizens’ ability to register to vote as the law allows.