Louisiana v. U.S. Election Assistance Commission

On April 14, 2026, Louisiana sued the United States Election Assistance Commission (“EAC”) for barring the state from implementing its documentary proof of citizenship (“DPOC”) law. The state argued that states have the authority to establish voter qualifications for federal elections and that it can change its laws to require DPOC. Louisiana alleged that the EAC violated the National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”) and the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) by blocking the state from implementing its DPOC law. The state requested a declaration that the EAC’s action is unlawful and an injunction against the EAC’s effort to ban the implementation of the law. 

In response to the lawsuit, the League of Women Voters (“LWV”), League of Women Voters of Louisiana (“LWVLA”) (together “the League”), Voice of the Experienced (“VOTE”), Power Coalition for Equity and Justice (“PCEJ”), and Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP (“Louisiana NAACP”) moved to intervene as defendants in the case on April 17, 2026. LWV joined this group of intervenor organizations that are also plaintiffs in LWVLA v. Landry, a lawsuit against Louisiana over its illegal DPOC law at issue here. 

The League and its co-intervenors argue that the NVRA rejects any DPOC requirement for the federal voter registration form, the EAC consistently rejects state requests to add additional DPOC to the federal form, and the state of Louisiana cannot compel the EAC to grant its request. 

Litigation is ongoing. 

The League is represented by the ACLU, ACLU of Louisiana, Campaign Legal Center, Brennan Center for Justice, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Southern Poverty Law Center.