Federal Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a preliminary injunction Thursday, partially blocking a major piece of President Donald Trump’s new executive order (EO 14248) aimed at securing elections. The blocked portion would have required proof of citizenship for anyone registering to vote using the federal mail-in form.
Trump’s EO, signed March 25, directs the Election Assistance Commission to revise the national voter registration form to mandate documentary proof of citizenship. It also ties federal funding to states’ compliance with federal election laws and voter verification standards.
Predictably, left-wing groups including the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and the League of Women Voters Education Fund immediately sued to stop it. Their lawsuits were consolidated, and Judge Kollar-Kotelly is overseeing all three.
On Thursday, Kollar-Kotelly blocked the administration from implementing Section 2(a) of the order, which enforces the proof-of-citizenship requirement. Her 120-page opinion claims the president lacks constitutional authority to regulate federal elections, a power she says is reserved for Congress and the states.
“Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States—not the President—with the authority to regulate federal elections,” the judge wrote. She further asserted that no current law allows the executive branch to “short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process” through executive action.
Kollar-Kotelly’s opinion also pointed to pending legislation in Congress, such as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, as evidence that changing voter registration requirements is a legislative function, not an executive one.
But the judge didn’t block all of Trump’s election reforms. She refused to enjoin sections targeting mail-in ballot deadlines and requiring non-discriminatory voting standards. Specifically, she declined to stop provisions preventing states from counting mail ballots received after Election Day—something 17 states plus Washington, D.C., currently allow.
However, she hinted that future challenges to those sections might need to come from states themselves, rather than political groups like the DNC. Several states have already filed lawsuits against Trump’s EO in other courts.
In another partial victory for Trump, Kollar-Kotelly rejected the DNC’s challenge to sections that seek to identify ineligible voters and empower the Attorney General to enforce uniform standards across states.
Despite Thursday’s ruling, this legal fight is far from finished. The Trump administration is widely expected to appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court. And given the stakes surrounding election integrity and voter security, the case could eventually land before the Supreme Court.
Trump’s executive order is part of a broader effort to tighten election security after years of Democrat-led expansion of mail-in voting, drop boxes, and same-day registration. His allies argue that without proof of citizenship, non-citizens can and will illegally vote in federal elections—an issue that strikes at the heart of American sovereignty.
Leftist groups and their media allies have predictably framed Trump’s efforts as “voter suppression,” even though ensuring only American citizens vote should be the bare minimum for election integrity.
Radical judges like Kollar-Kotelly are working overtime to thwart Trump’s America First agenda. As we’ve seen with immigration, DEI rollbacks, and now election security, activist courts are the left’s main weapon to block popular reforms they can’t defeat at the ballot box.
This is only the opening salvo. Trump’s administration is already signaling it will press forward, and conservatives nationwide are rallying behind the push to safeguard America’s elections.
Stay tuned — this battle for election integrity is just heating up.
