Judge halts Trump push for proof of citizenship to register to vote

Michael Macagnone, CQ-Roll Call on Apr 24, 2025

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WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., paused on Thursday a portion of President Donald Trump’s executive order to overhaul elections nationwide that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.

In lawsuits brought by Democrats and voting rights groups, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that having the Election Assistance Commission change federal voter registration application forms to require proof of citizenship likely violated the Constitution.

“Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States — not the President — with the authority to regulate federal elections,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote in the opinion.

The judge declined to block the entire order, which included a Justice Department crackdown on suspected electoral crimes.

Trump signed the executive order last month, seeking to have all federal voter registrations require proof of citizenship and to have the Justice Department investigate alleged voter fraud. The order also included several other measures, such as conditioning state election funds on their compliance and requiring paper records of ballots.

Following the order, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Democratic National Committee and other groups sued in Washington, D.C., federal court seeking to block much of the order. The cases were consolidated before Kollar-Kotelly. The plaintiffs include Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

The groups and Democrats argued that Trump’s order exceeded his power under federal law and the Constitution and would make it more difficult for legal voters to vote.

Kollar-Kotelly wrote that the challengers in the suits before her likely could not prove irreparable harm, the standard for the temporary pause, for several aspects of the order such as conditioning state election funds on compliance with the order.

In Thursday’s decision, Kollar-Kotelly cited the House’s recent passage of a bill to implement many of the changes Trump sought in the order, including requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.

It is already a crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, but conservatives have advanced theories of mass noncitizen voting since President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that noncitizen voting was a factor in his loss.

Multiple lawsuits are still proceeding against the executive order, including state suits filed in federal courts in Washington state and Massachusetts.

The lead case in Washington is League of United Latin American Citizens et al. v. Executive Office of the President et al.

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