Trump's Latest Voter Suppression Scheme Blocked By Appeals Court

 

Another attempt by the J6 insurrection leader Malignant Fascist to rig elections has been blocked, for now:

A federal appeals court on Saturday declined to allow U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to implement in 23 states his executive order that aims to tighten rules for mail-in voting ahead of November elections that will decide control of Congress.

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the administration’s request to lift an injunction several Democratic-led states secured on June 25 from a lower-court judge who concluded that key parts of the Republican president’s order were unconstitutional. In asking the court to pause U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s ruling while it pursues an appeal, the U.S. Department of Justice had argued that because government agencies had yet to finalize actions and policies to implement Trump’s directive, any lawsuit challenging his order was premature.

The appeals court, in a 2-1 ruling, rejected that argument.

“As the district court reasoned, the (executive order) lays out a clear set of rapidly approaching deadlines by which states must coordinate with federal officials and comply with new voting procedures — all while the states must also ensure that their officials and the public understand the evolving set of rules that would govern the upcoming September and November elections,” the judges wrote. “The Plaintiff States have no practical choice but to respond to the (order) now.” Before Talwani ruled, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., rejected a related effort by Democrats to block Trump’s order on similar grounds. The Justice Department warned that absent a ruling in its favor from the 1st Circuit, it may be forced to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.  [snip]

But Talwani, in siding with a coalition of 23 states and the District of Columbia that was led by California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington state, said the president lacked any authority to direct DHS to compile voter eligibility lists for each state to use and that USPS had no statutory authorization to adopt any binding regulations on mail-in voting.

The judge, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, said Trump also could not attempt through his order “to intimidate local election officials to use the necessarily incomplete confirmed citizenship lists as a resource, lest they face criminal prosecution.”

The "Justice" Department is expected to run to the Republican Supreme Court in order to overturn the Appeals Court's decision, where we're certain his MAGAt lackeys will create some new powers for the MF and the agencies involved that don't exist in statute.  From gerrymandering to purging voter rolls to mail-in ballot restrictions, the objective is for the MF and his party/ cult to choose who votes, because that's the only way they win.

(Cartoon:  R.J. Matson, CQ/ Roll Call)