Washington .- A federal appeals court rejected the request of the U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to implement an executive order in 23 states that seeks to impose new restrictions on mail-in voting ahead of the November elections, in which control of Congress will be at stake.
The First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld, in a ruling issued Saturday night, the temporary suspension ordered on June 25 by federal judge Indira Talwani, who concluded that several provisions of the measure likely violate the Constitution.
The Department of Justice had requested to stay that decision while the appeals process continues, arguing that the lawsuit filed by a coalition of 23 states and the District of Columbia, led by California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Washington, was premature because federal agencies had not yet finished developing the measures necessary to implement the order.
The court rejected that argument and held that the states already had to prepare for the elections. “The plaintiff states have no practical choice but to respond to the order now,” the judges wrote.
Trump’s questioning of mail-in voting
The executive order, signed by Trump in March, instructs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to compile lists of U.S. citizens eligible to vote from federal citizenship records and orders the Department of Justice to prioritize investigations into state and local election officials who send ballots to individuals deemed ineligible to vote.
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Talwani determined that the president lacks the authority to order the DHS to prepare those records for the states and that the Postal Service (USPS) also lacks legal authorization to impose binding rules on mail-in voting.
The judge further held that the order cannot be used “to intimidate local election officials” and force them to use as a reference federal citizenship records that do not include all voters eligible to cast a ballot, under the threat of criminal prosecution.
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Trump signed the order after years of questioning mail-in voting and maintaining, without evidence, that his defeat in the 2020 presidential election was the result of widespread fraud. The Department of Justice warned that, if it does not obtain a favorable ruling on appeal, it could request the intervention of the Supreme Court.
