California v. Trump (Elections Executive Order Lawsuit)

On March 25, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14248 claiming to protect the integrity of American elections (“Order”). In its provisions, the Order purported to make several changes to federal elections. Among these were:   

Section 2(a): Ordering the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), an independent, bipartisan agency, to revise the federal voter registration form states are required to offer to citizens under the National Voter Registration Act. The order would mandate presentation of a photo ID, limited to a United States passport, REAL ID showing the applicant was a citizen, a military ID card showing the applicant was a US citizen, or some other valid federal or state photo ID showing the applicant was a US citizen or with undefined accompanying proof of United States citizenship, to register using the form.  

Note: Under the NVRA, and current US Supreme Court precedent, documentary proof of citizenship is not required to register for federal elections. Illegal non-citizen voting in elections is extremely rare. 

Section 2(b):Directing the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Administrator of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to, “review each State’s publicly available voter registration list and available records concerning voter list maintenance activities as required by 52 U.S.C. §20507, alongside Federal immigration databases and State records requested, including through subpoena where necessary and authorized by law, for consistency with Federal requirements.” 

Section 7: Ordering the US Attorney General to enforce an interpretation of the statute setting the federal election day to require all mail ballots to be received by election officials by Election Day to be counted. The EAC was also ordered to condition grants on states requiring mail ballots to be received by Election Day to be counted.   

Several lawsuits immediately followed, with one brought by California, and 18 other states filed on April 3, 2025, in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, asserting the Order was illegal and unconstitutional. The states argued that the Order violated the separation of powers between Congress and the President, as well as that between the states and the federal government. The plaintiff states asked for a preliminary injunction that would put the Order on hold while litigation proceeded.  

On June 13, 2025, the court granted the preliminary injunction, forbidding the government from enforcing Sections 2(a), 2(d), 3(d), 7(a), and 7(b) of the Order. The government appealed this decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on August 1, 2025. 

On February 9, 2026, the League of Women Voters, League of Women Voters Education Fund (LWVEF), League of Women Voters of Arizona (LWVAZ), the Hispanic Federation, NAACP, OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates and APIA Vote filed an amicus brief supporting the plaintiff states. The brief pointed out that the defendants had taken an inconsistent position on the meaning of Section 2(a) of the Order and described the Order’s negative effects on the voter registration efforts of the League and its co-amici. 

The League and its co-amici were represented in this matter by the ACLU, Brennan Center for Justice, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and LatinoJustice PRLDEF.