Federal Judge Carl Nichols, a Washington DC district judge and former law clerk to Clarence Thomas, declined to block a Trump executive order that would compile a list of eligible voters in each state, and restrict mail-in ballots to be delivered by the US Postal Service to only those voters on a federally approved list.
Democrats including Chuck Schumer as well as civil rights groups were seeking to block Trump’s executive order.
Nichols reasoned that the Democrats had brought the case too early because the government had not yet produced any flawed citizenship lists and the Postal Service had not yet implemented any new rules.
“Given that the Executive Order does not command Plaintiffs to do anything, and that no agency has yet acted pursuant to the Order in a way that could harm Plaintiffs, they have not suffered any harm at present,” wrote Nichols, who was appointed in 2019 by Trump during his first term.
The judge said the Democrats could ask for an injunction again after federal agencies took steps to implement the executive order.
Democrats had pointed out that the order infringed on states’ rights to regulate elections per the US Constitution.
The request said that Trump’s directives that ordered states to use the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to build citizenship lists risked removing lawfully registered voters because data sources might be out of date or could include errors.
Another similar case is set to be heard in a Boston federal court under District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee. Arguments are set for June 2.