Nineteen Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit alleging President Donald Trump’s recent executive order concerning election reforms and expanding voter ID requirements was unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Massachusetts on Thursday, claimed that “neither the Constitution nor Congress has authorized the President to impose documentary proof of citizenship requirements or to modify state mail-ballot procedures.”
Attorneys general from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin joined the lawsuit, with their action coming as Democratic attorneys general have emerged as the Left’s leading source of opposition to the Trump administration.
“It bears emphasizing: the President has no power to do any of this,” the chief state legal officers wrote in court filings. “The Elections EO is unconstitutional, antidemocratic, and un-American.”
The lawsuit responded to the president’s March 25 executive action, which instituted requirements for documentary proof of citizenship for the national voter registration form and mandated that mail-in ballots arrive on Election Day.
Trump argued that enacting such requirements, which have been similarly recently put in place by states such as Utah, was necessary to enhance the integrity of the election process and keep illegal immigrants from voting.