States Challenge Trump’s Authority on New Mail-In Voting Standards in Court Battle

Former President Donald Trump is facing allegations of attempting to unlawfully control state elections, a move opponents claim breaches the U.S. Constitution by limiting voter eligibility and mail-in voting based on lists sanctioned by his administration. This is according to a federal lawsuit filed on Friday.

In March 2025, Trump, serving as both the 45th and 47th president, issued Executive Order 14248, titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.” This directive aims to overhaul the electoral process by mandating that all voters provide proof of citizenship with formal documentation and by discontinuing the acceptance of mail-in ballots postmarked by, but received after, Election Day.

Last month, Trump further expanded on these initiatives with a new executive order titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” The order seeks to solidify citizenship verification measures by implementing approved voter lists, limiting mail-in voting to those aligned with these lists, and enforcing stringent record-keeping requirements on states.

Leading the charge against these orders, several states spearheaded by California argue that Trump’s actions represent a significant overreach of federal authority. They claim these orders disregard fundamental constitutional principles by attempting to control how states manage elections.

“The President’s latest interference with state-run elections is both unprecedented and unconstitutional,” the lawsuit states. “The Constitution grants no authority to the President to limit voter eligibility or mail-in voting based on federally pre-approved lists. The plaintiff states have initiated this legal action to defend their constitutional power to manage both state and federal elections.”

The legal complaint is built on several constitutional grounds, alleging violations of the separation of powers, the elections and electors clauses, and an overreach of federal authority.

Under the relevant provisions of the executive order, the Trump administration directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in conjunction with immigration and Social Security officials, to generate a list of voters eligible to vote by citizenship status per state.

The order further directs the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to firmly limit the use of mail-in and absentee voting to its own list – along with a lengthy series of new conditions on vote-by-mail generated by USPS like specific ballot envelope, identification, and tracking standards.

Finally, the order mandates a five-year period in which states and localities “should” preserve “all records and materials — excluding ballots cast — evidencing voter participation in any Federal election (e.g., ballot envelopes, regardless of carrier).”

To hear the plaintiffs tell it, these presidential demands are “contrary to the expressed will of Congress” with regard to mail-in voting and amount to “unreasonable discrimination among users of the mails” in violation of federal law.

“Having failed to enact changes to election administration through Congress, the President has resorted to unlawfully attempting to legislate by fiat,” the filing goes on. “The [executive order] mandates that federal agencies create their own voter eligibility lists and imposes those lists on the States through threats of prosecuting States and their elections officials”

From the complaint, at length:

The EO erects shadow voter eligibility lists within the federal government and uses threats of investigation and prosecution to coerce States into disenfranchising voters missing from those lists. It also directly interferes with mail voting by mandating that the United States Postal Service refuse to deliver voted ballots unless the voters are on USPS’s precleared list, which is maintained outside the control of the States who administer federal elections. Finally, the EO purports to lengthen the existing period for elections officials to preserve elections records to facilitate threatened prosecutions, contradicting existing requirements in state and federal law.

“Plaintiff States will be harmed by the new federal initiative to interfere with States’ administration of mail voting, including harm to their sovereignty and significant costs and administrative burdens,” the filing continues.

The states also complains about a section of the order which threatens a loss of federal funding for “noncompliance,” which they describe as an effort to “to coerce States into disenfranchising voters missing from those lists.”

The lawsuit also notes that the timing of the newly-proposed rules and regulations would essentially upend existing election administration procedures within weeks of upcoming primary elections and months before this year’s midterm general election. The states say this is a “dangerously quick pace” to try and move forward with a wholesale overhaul of vote-by-mail systems that will “sow confusion and chaos” and likely disenfranchise numerous voters.

“Once again, President Trump is trying to rewrite the rules of our elections. But he lacks the authority to do so — full stop,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press release announcing the litigation. “The U.S. Constitution clearly gives States the primary authority over elections and gives zero authority to the President. This latest executive order is just another unlawful attempt to restrict voting, fueled by his fear of losing the upcoming midterm elections and based on wholly unfounded allegations of voter fraud.”