Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump is not doing well with his plan to require documentary proof of citizenship to vote. The Senate isn't playing ball and neither is the judiciary. Early on in Trump v2.0, Trump signed an XO requiring proof of citizenship to vote. That was flawed from the start, because XOs are orders to the federal bureaucracy about how to interpret federal law. Federal bureaucrats do not run elections so they don't have to interpret anything. States run elections, not federal bureaucrats. Multiple state AGs sued and a year ago, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper, a Barack Obama appointee, issued a preliminary injunction putting the XO on hold until she ruled.
Yesterday, she ruled. And the ruling was crystal clear and permanent this time. She wrote that the Constitution "does not grant the President any specific powers over elections," so she ruled that the XO violated the Constitution. We do not understand why it took her a year. You can read the Constitution (including all 27 amendments) in under an hour. Make that 2 hours if you want to double-check. Shouldn't take a year. Still, we now have a definitive ruling. Trump is not going to like being overruled by a Black woman who is also a graduate of the woke Harvard Law School. After all, he is president and she is not.
New York AG Letitia James, one of the AGs in the case, said she was grateful the court had blocked Trump's unconstitutional attempt to seize control of our elections. She also said: "Generations of Americans fought tirelessly for the right to vote, and we honor their legacy by protecting that right against anyone who tries to undermine it."
This was Trump's second loss on the issue of proof of citizenship this week. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, a Joe Biden appointee, blocked Trump's plan to create a centralized federal voter database.
But Trump keeps throwing stuff at the wall to see if anything sticks. In 2026, Trump signed another XO that would create an official federal list of voters and would curtail mail-in voting. That XO is already being fought in court, as noted in the previous paragraph. Yesterday, Trump got some more bad news on that front. A three-judge appeals court panel in Michigan ruled that Michigan does not have to hand over its voting rolls to the Feds. The vote was 2-1, with Judge Andre Mathis, a Joe Biden appointee, and Judge R. Guy Cole Jr., a Bill Clinton appointee, voting for Michigan and Judge John Nalbandian, a Donald Trump appointee, voting for the Feds. The DoJ claimed that the Civil Rights Act gave them the power to demand the data. The first two judges checked the Act and couldn't find anything in there about it. The third judge probably didn't bother to check and just took the DoJ at its word.
Trump also wants the USPS to refuse to deliver absentee ballots to people on his not-yet-compiled voter list. That again is an attempt to assert federal authority over an issue the Constitution explicitly grants to the states. In sixth grade, Trump was probably shooting spitballs out of a straw at other kids and not paying attention when the teacher was explaining federalism.
Trump might get his way, though. Yesterday, Postmaster General David Steiner appeared before the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) asked him if he would indeed halt the delivery of mail-in ballots in states that refuse to turn over their voter files for inclusion in a national voter database. Steiner confirmed that indeed, he would not allow the USPS to deliver ballots in states that failed to obey Trump. However, he also said he would obey any court orders on the subject.
All these actions together give the impression that Trump is extremely worried about the midterms and knows that if they are fair, Democrats will very likely win the House and maybe even the Senate. He knows his only chance to prevent that—and one or more impeachments—is to prevent Democrats from voting, one way or another. He keeps trying different ways and keeps getting shot down. But he will not stop. It is too important to him. Keep reading. (V)