Court Junks Trump’s Bid to Require Citizenship Proof on Voting Form

President Donald Trump’s request to add a documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form cannot be enforced, a federal judge ruled, Ali Swenson and Nicholas Riccardi reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The ruling grants the plaintiffs a partial summary judgment that prohibits the proof-of-citizenship requirement from going into effect.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C., sided with Democratic and civil rights groups that sued the Trump administration over his executive order to overhaul U.S. elections.

She ruled that the proof-of-citizenship directive is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers — a blow to the administration and its allies, who have argued that such a mandate is necessary to restore public confidence that only Americans are voting in U.S. elections.

Sophia Lin Lakin of the ACLU, one of the plaintiffs, called the ruling “a clear victory for our democracy.

President Trump’s attempt to impose a documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement on the federal voter registration form is an unconstitutional power grab.”

“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,” 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.”

The ruling grants the plaintiffs a partial summary judgment that prohibits the proof-of-citizenship requirement from going into effect. It also permanently bars the U.S. Election Assistance Commission — which had been considering adding the requirement to the federal voter form — from taking action to do so.