Democrats filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to block President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting who can vote by mail, saying election eligibility is governed by the U.S. Constitution and is determined by states and Congress, not by the president. The lawsuit names Trump and senior administration officials as defendants, according to Associated Press reporting by Nicholas Riccardi.
The filing was submitted by Sen. Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic National Committee and other Democratic organizations working on campaigns for House, Senate and governor offices nationwide. Schumer said the parties “will see him in court and we will beat him again,” in a statement quoted in the report.
Trump announced Tuesday that his administration would compile lists in states of who is eligible to vote by mail, and that the U.S. Postal Service would mail ballots only to those who meet the criteria, the report said. Critics cited in the reporting said there was little time to review voter rolls before ballots start going out for the fall elections, in some places as early as September.
The lawsuit also argues that Trump is attacking core democratic structures by trying to control election rules for electoral advantage. The court filing, as described in the Associated Press story, said Trump “has tried again and again to rewrite election rules for his own perceived partisan advantage,” and it contends the Constitution’s Framers anticipated efforts by presidents to seek “absolute power,” distributing election-control authority across states and Congress.
The Democrats’ complaint frames mail voting as a longstanding option that had expanded in popularity through the years in both Democratic and Republican states until 2020, the report said. It also says Trump then shifted to targeting the voting method and that the move drew on baseless claims of mass fraud.
The lawsuit is the second round of litigation over what courts might see as presidential attempts to shape election procedures. The report says Democratic opponents won an earlier round last year, when an initial executive order was blocked after multiple federal judges found it was likely unconstitutional.
Beyond the executive order at issue now, the Associated Press report described a broader pattern since Trump returned to office: attempts to interfere in state-run elections, a probe of the 2020 vote that drew on election conspiracy theories, and efforts to push Congress to pass a law that would create additional voting hurdles. The report said that proposed law included a requirement that people provide in-person, documentary proof of citizenship when registering, and that bill stalled in the Senate over Democratic opposition.
Trump has also disputed the premise that the mail-voting approach is politically motivated, the report said, noting that he often votes by mail. It cited that he voted by mail in a special election in Florida last month.
Democrats’ court challenge is expected to come as fall-election preparations proceed and ballots are scheduled to begin going out in some jurisdictions in September. The suit therefore seeks to stop the executive-order mechanism before mailing starts under the eligibility lists and Postal Service guidance Trump described Tuesday.
The same Associated Press reporting noted that mail voting’s popularity has diverged in recent cycles, becoming less popular among Republicans while increasing among Democrats. It said Trump’s focus on restricting the method has offered him additional incentive to limit mail voting ahead of the midterm elections that determine whether his party continues to control Congress.