The League of Women Voters sued in federal court today to halt President Trump's EO on elections. (The full docket in the case is here.)

LWV claims that President Trump's EO violates the separation of powers and orders the Election Assistance Commission to engage in illegal conduct. Here's from the complaint:

  1. In the President's [EO], the President attempts to usurp the power to regulate federal elections from Congress, the States, and an independent agency to which Congress delegated certain limited responsibilities.
  2. The President may do no such thing. Under the Constitution, the President has no authority to make or change the rules for conducting federal elections.
  3. Not only does the [EO] attempt to rip power away from the entities that have actual constitutional and statutory authority to regulate federal elections, it does so in violation of the text and purpose of federal laws Congress enacted to make it easier for Americans to register to vote and cast ballots in federal elections.
  4. Specifically, the [EO] purports to order the Election Assistance Commission to require a passport or other citizenship document to register to vote using the federal voter registration form prescribed by Congress (the "Federal Form"), and to do so within 30 days. Yet federal law gives the President no authority over the Federal Form specifically and federal elections more broadly. And the president has no decision-making authority over the EAC, an independent bipartisan agency. That agency has repeatedly considered and rejected requests to add such a requirement of documentary proof of citizenship to the Federal Form.
  5. The [EO] also unlawfully claims to direct the EAC to take other actions, including decertifying all state voting machines across the country, and purportedly imposes a nationwide absentee and mail ballot receipt deadline for federal elections that would effectively overturn the laws of eighteen states by executive fiat and threat of coercive action. The scope and impact of this attempted power grab is staggering. With a stroke of the pen, the President claims unilateral authority to change the rules for voter registration and election administration across the country in a manner that would threaten the ability of millions of eligible Americans to register and vote and upend the administration of federal elections.