BOSTON — A federal judge on Wednesday permanently barred President Donald Trump's administration from implementing most of a 2025 executive order on elections that included a requirement for documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote.
U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper in Boston issued the ruling, converting a preliminary injunction she granted a year earlier into a permanent block. The decision came in a lawsuit brought by 19 states challenging the order.
The executive order, signed by Trump in March 2025, sought to overhaul aspects of federal elections. Among its provisions, it directed requirements for voters to show documentary proof of citizenship during registration, set stricter deadlines for mail ballots and proposed withholding federal funds from noncompliant states.
Casper ruled that the president lacks authority to impose such changes. “While the Constitution vests the President with ‘executive Power’ and commands him to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ it does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” she wrote in the 59-page opinion.
The judge rejected the administration's arguments that the challenge was premature and dismissed claims of widespread issues in the voting system as unsupported. She concluded that authority over election administration rests primarily with states and Congress, not the executive branch.
Federal law already requires U.S. citizenship for voting in federal elections, with enforcement primarily through self-attestation under penalty of perjury via the National Voter Registration Act. The blocked provisions would have imposed additional documentary requirements.
Attorneys general from Democratic-led states welcomed the ruling. The Trump administration has not yet indicated whether it will appeal. Details of any immediate next steps remained unclear as of Wednesday evening.
The case is one of several legal challenges to the administration's election-related executive actions. Similar rulings by other federal judges have addressed related aspects of voter verification efforts.
The Department of Justice, representing the administration, had defended the order as necessary to protect election integrity. Critics, including voting rights groups, argued it overstepped constitutional bounds and could create unnecessary barriers for eligible voters.
The ruling applies specifically to the challenged provisions of the executive order and does not alter existing federal citizenship requirements for voting.
