BALTIMORE, MD—Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced this week that he has joined a coalition of 19 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit (PDF) against President Donald J. Trump, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the federal Election Assistance Commission, and other administration officials. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of President Trump’s Executive Order No. 14248, also known as the Elections Executive Order, which imposes new restrictions on voter registration and absentee voting.
The coalition argues that the Executive Order, which requires documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration and seeks to change state procedures for counting ballots, is an overreach of presidential power and violates the separation of powers between the federal government and the states. The lawsuit states that the President lacks the authority to rewrite state election laws or modify congressionally established election rules.
“This Voter Suppression Executive Order is an outrageous and unconstitutional attack on the fundamental right to vote,” said Attorney General Brown in a statement. “It’s a blatant power grab designed to rig the system by silencing eligible voters, undermining fair election rules, and punishing states for protecting democracy.”
The lawsuit specifically highlights several provisions of the Executive Order that the coalition claims will cause imminent and irreparable harm to the states if not blocked. These include requiring documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration, mandating states to assess citizenship before providing voter registration forms to public assistance program enrollees, and altering state ballot-counting laws to exclude absentee ballots received after Election Day. The lawsuit also points out that the Executive Order threatens to withhold federal funding from states that do not comply with its provisions.
The coalition of attorneys general is asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to block the challenged provisions of the Elections Executive Order, declare them unconstitutional, and void.
Attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin have joined Attorney General Brown in filing the lawsuit.
This article was written with the assistance of AI and reviewed by a human editor.
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