Trump order restricting mail voting is ‘unconstitutional on its face’

Tuesday, March 31

View in browser

Trump signs unconstitutional executive order to ban mail-in voting

President Donald Trump signed a new, unconstitutional anti-voting order Tuesday that severely restricts mail-in voting and directs the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to create a list of verified U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote in each state.
David Becker, the executive director of Center for Election Innovation & Research, told Democracy Docket that the order is unconstitutional on its face,” and that he expects it “will be blocked by multiple federal courts in a very, very short period of time and will have no legal effect whatsoever."
Read the full story >>>

More fallout over the DOJ’s Fulton County raid

Attorneys for Fulton County, Georgia alleged in a new court filing that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) used the FBI raid on the county elections office to circumvent a lawsuit and seize 2020 ballots.
To bolster their claim, Fulton County officials included a screenshot of a social media post from Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Civil Rights Division, that suggested the raid was in response to the county’s resistance to the DOJ’s demands that it hand over election records.

California sheriff used ‘non-existent’ quotes in legal defense of ballot seizures

In a brief filed Monday, the UCLA Voting Rights Project said California sheriff Chad Bianco and his private attorney, Robert Tyler, made up quotations in their brief filed in opposition to a lawsuit challenging the sheriff’s seizure of 650,000 ballots.
Read the full story >>>

In a win for voters, court blocks Arkansas’ restrictive registration rule

The decision blocks state officials from rejecting applications over digital signatures and will allow Arkansans to use an online tool that makes registration easier.
Read the full story >>>

A loss for voters in Wisconsin

A three-judge panel dismissed a pro-voting lawsuit challenging the state's gerrymandered congressional map, finding "no recognized claim for excessive partisan gerrymandering" absent the state's highest court's “determin[ation] that such a claim is justiciable.”
Learn more about the case >>>

Coming up tomorrow

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship for children born on American soil to non-citizen parents.
Learn more about the case >>>

Here we share noteworthy briefs on all things voting rights and democracy. Have a footnote for us? Send them to news@democracydocket.com.

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt construction on the White House ballroom — and whatever that massive underground complex underneath it is supposed to be.
And in more Trump L’s in court… a federal judge ruled the president’s executive order defunding NPR and PBS was unconstitutional.
Fired FBI agents just filed a class action lawsuit against Kash Patel and Pam Bondi, claiming their termination was political retaliation.
Former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz said he was briefed on extraterrestrials while in Congress. This is not the X-Files reboot we were hoping for…