In a significant legal setback for the Trump administration, a federal appeals court ruled on Saturday to uphold an injunction against implementing more stringent mail-in voting measures ahead of the looming midterm elections. With the political landscape tense and control of both the House and Senate at stake, this decision is particularly impactful.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held firm in its decision not to overturn a previous lower court ruling from June, which had declared certain components of President Trump’s directive unconstitutional. This legal challenge was spearheaded by several Democrat-led states, including California, Massachusetts, and Washington, who successfully argued against the administration’s stance.
In a close 2-1 decision, the appeals court denied the Trump administration’s appeal, reinforcing the earlier verdict.
President Trump’s contested order tasked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with compiling a list of verified U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state, utilizing sensitive information gleaned from federal databases. Furthermore, the directive instructed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to scrutinize officials mailing ballots to individuals deemed “not eligible” to vote.
In her ruling, Judge Talwani underscored that President Trump lacked the authority to mandate the DHS to assemble such data, and similarly, the USPS could not enforce these mail-in voting directives. She emphasized that Trump did not possess the legal power to coerce local election officials into relying on these inevitably incomplete citizenship lists under the threat of criminal prosecution.
Trump has remained critical of mail-in ballots and in his July primetime address on election integrity said there were “shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure. This evidence shows that the election system we have dangerously exposes, and really exposes like levels never thought possible, the hacking, exploitation, and foreign interference.”
He also mentioned in the same speech that how long it took California to count mail-in ballots was “one example of insanity” caused by mail-in voting.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has said that absent any ruling in its favor the administration may ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.