Federal judge blocks Trump effort to make voters show proof of citizenship

A US federal court blocked Donald Trump’s attempt to regulate elections via executive order, a win for democracy advocates who have fought back against the US president’s push to take power over voting.

Trump issued an executive order on elections, including a documentary proof of citizenship requirement that would have necessitated that people show passports, birth certificates or other documentation when they registered to vote, or changed their registration.

Congress has been considering a similar requirement as part of the Save America Act, which has not yet received approval in both chambers, despite the president’s demands.

US district court judge Denise Casper in Massachusetts ruled on Wednesday that the order was unconstitutional. States and local jurisdictions largely set rules for elections, and Congress has authority to pass laws regulating elections.

The constitution “does not grant the President any specific powers over elections”, Casper wrote. She previously temporarily blocked the 2025 executive order after Democratic attorneys general brought a lawsuit against it, one of dozens the Democratic AGs have brought against Trump in his second term.

None of the order’s provisions had gone into place yet.

Election denialism has animated Trump’s second presidency. He has stocked his administration with loyalists, including those who played roles in seeking to overturn Trump’s loss in 2020. He has sought to take federal control over elections and cried fraud without evidence when he has not liked the results, most recently in California.

Trump has said he won’t sign any legislation until Congress passes the Save America Act. On Wendesday, he canceled plans to sign a bipartisan housing bill, saying he wanted the Save America Act on his desk first.

Trump announced another executive order on voting in 2026, which attempted to create a federal list of confirmed citizens who can vote in each state and would curtail mail voting. That order is likely unconstitutional as well, and faces lawsuits, although a federal judge declined to stop the measure because it was premature.

The US Postal Service has issued a proposed rule that would require states to hand over lists of voters who requested mail-in ballots and barcodes associated with their ballots to the postal service. The move usurps state authority over elections at a time when many states are fighting the Trump administration over attempts to access state voter rolls.

US postmaster ⁠general David Steiner said on Wednesday that the postal service wouldn’t deliver mailed ballots in states that refused to turn over their lists, which would massively hinder voting access.

A letter to the postal service from all 47 Democratic senators warned that such a list would be ripe for abuse and likely contain inaccuracies that would prevent eligible voters from casting ballots.

“This proposed rule risks disenfranchising millions of voters,” the senators wrote. “We again insist that you follow the law, refuse to implement President Trump’s executive order, and withdraw this presidentially-directed proposed rule.”