A federal judge has blocked key portions of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump seeking to increase voter registration requirements by mandating proof of citizenship.
Senior District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled against the directive that sought to add a citizenship documentation requirement to the widely used federal voter registration form, reports CNN.
In her decision, the Washington, D.C.-based judge emphasised that the U.S. Constitution grants Congress and the states, not the president, the power to regulate federal elections.
“Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States — not the President — with the authority to regulate federal elections,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote.
“And no statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order,” she added.
The judge also temporarily blocked a separate section of the executive order that would require federal agencies offering voter registration services to verify a person’s citizenship before issuing registration forms.
Kollar-Kotelly, appointed by President Bill Clinton, is currently presiding over lawsuits brought by non-partisan voting rights groups and Democratic Party-affiliated entities.
The suits also challenged other aspects of Trump’s order, including provisions targeting states that accept mail-in ballots received after Election Day.
However, the judge declined to halt those provisions, citing procedural grounds as they are being considered in other court cases filed by states.
