Federal Judge Permanently Blocks Trump’s Order Requiring Citizenship Proof to Vote

Federal Judge Permanently Blocks Trump’s Order Requiring Citizenship Proof to Vote

  • A federal judge has permanently blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to enforce new voting rules
  • The ruling found that the president lacked authority over elections and that claims of widespread fraud were unsupported
  • This marks another major setback in efforts to reshape federal election oversight

A federal judge has permanently stopped the Trump administration from enforcing an executive order that sought to change voting rules.

The order, signed last year, required proof of citizenship to register to vote and demanded that mail-in ballots be received by Election Day.

Judge Denise Casper rules president lacks election authority in landmark case.
Federal judge blocks Trump’s voting order as courts uphold election rights. Photo credit: Peter Dazeley/GettyImages
Source: Getty Images

According to ABC, Judge Denise Casper ruled on Wednesday that the president does not have the authority to oversee elections. She rejected claims from the administration about “widespread illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error.”

Judge’s legal reasoning

In her ruling, Judge Casper explained:

"While the Constitution vests the President with 'executive Power' and commands him to 'take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,' it does not grant the President any specific powers over elections."

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The decision follows a lawsuit filed in Boston last April by a group of state attorneys general. They challenged Trump’s first executive order on voting. Judge Casper had already issued a preliminary injunction in June last year, and her latest 59-page ruling makes that block permanent.

No evidence of widespread fraud

Judge Casper found that the Department of Justice failed to prove the alleged fraud that was used to justify the order. She noted that the policy would have disenfranchised thousands of voters.

"There is no evidence in this record of widespread 'illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error' within American elections, which the Executive Order purports to safeguard against," she wrote.

Wider impact on Trump’s election policies

This ruling is another setback for the Trump administration’s attempts to reshape federal elections. Courts have already blocked several efforts to impose federal oversight.

Multiple lawsuits are challenging Trump’s second executive order, which aimed to create a national database of approved voters. Earlier this week, a judge blocked an attempt to use an immigration database to check voter rolls. Judges across the country have rejected efforts by the Department of Justice to obtain state voter rolls.

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The ruling highlights the limits of presidential power over elections and reinforces the role of the courts in protecting voting rights. It also signals continued judicial resistance to federal attempts to control state election processes.

Trump’s election policies face repeated setbacks as judges block federal oversight.
Court rejects claims of widespread voter fraud and protects mail‑in ballot access. Photo credit: SimpleImages/GettyImages
Source: Twitter

US jails popular Nigerian politician for 5 years

Legit.ng earlier reported that the United States court has jailed a 42-year-old Nigerian man, Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo, for five years in federal prison for orchestrating a romance scam online, where he defrauded victims of over $3.5 million.

This was disclosed in a statement by the US Department of Justice, stating that the sentencing was handed down to him by U.S. District Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright on Monday, June 22, in Washington, adding that the crime was devastating,

Vanguard reported that Nwadialo is the chairman of the Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra. According to the judge, the scam had caused severe financial losses and inflicted deep emotional harm on victims, which included “shame, depression, and isolation from their own family.”

Source: Legit.ng

Authors:
Basit Jamiu avatar

Basit Jamiu (Current Affairs and Politics Editor) Basit Jamiu is an AFP-certified journalist with a wealth of experience spanning over 5 years. He is a current affairs and politics editor at Legit.ng. He holds a bachelor's degree from Nasarawa State University (2023). Basit previously worked as a staff writer at Ikeja Bird (2022), Associate Editor at Prime Progress (2022). He is a 2025 CRA Grantee, 2024 Open Climate Fellow (West Africa), 2023 MTN Media Fellow. Email: basitjamiu1st@gmail.com and basit.jamiu@corp.legit.ng.