National Democratic organisations, the party's Senate and House leaders and a naturalized-citizen voter sued President Donald Trump, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday, asking a federal judge to block the administration from threatening state and local election officials with criminal prosecution and from pressuring states to remove voters from the rolls, Democracy Docket reported. The allegations in the complaint have not been answered in court.
Source: Democracy Docket
The plaintiffs are the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Governors Association, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the Nevada State Democratic Party and Erick Jose Jimenez, a California voter who became a naturalized citizen in 2006. The case, DSCC v. Trump, No. 1:26-cv-03674, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and also names Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Source: WorkersRights News (reporting the complaint, Bloomberg and Reuters)
From 15,903 flagged names to 185 — to zero, Nevada says
The complaint lays out what it calls a pattern meant to frighten officials into complying with the administration's demands. In Nevada, it says, DHS first claimed 15,903 potential noncitizens on the state's rolls, then said 185 were confirmed — and Nevada answered that its records showed all 185 were citizens, with the complaint saying DHS offered nothing of substance to suggest otherwise. In California, the complaint says, the Justice Department's October 13 letters demanded that officials refuse or segregate ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters; when Los Angeles County checked a sample, more than a quarter of the entries concerned people who listed a place of birth inside the United States.
Source: WorkersRights News (reporting the complaint, Bloomberg and Reuters)
On October 16, Trump posted a Justice Department letter about the California ballots with the comment that the officials involved would 'all go to jail for a long period of time'; Reuters reported the letter warned officials they could be liable as accomplices to a federal crime if they counted those ballots. Neither the White House nor the Justice Department immediately responded to Bloomberg's requests for comment, Business Standard reported.
Source: WorkersRights News (reporting the complaint, Bloomberg and Reuters)
The legal claims — and why naturalized voters are watching
The suit makes three constitutional claims — that the president is acting beyond his power under the Elections Clause, which gives states and Congress the job of running elections; that he is violating the 10th Amendment's federal-state split; and that he is commandeering state officials — plus a claim under Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which bars intimidating or coercing a person for voting or for aiding others to vote. The plaintiffs argue election officials who mail ballots, run polling sites and count votes are aiding voters, so threatening them is voter intimidation. They ask the court to declare the threats unlawful and bar further ones; the complaint includes no separate request for an emergency order.
Source: Democracy Docket
The named individual plaintiff is himself a naturalized citizen who says he fears being wrongly flagged as a noncitizen. With Election Day on Tuesday, November 3, the case turns on lists the Democrats allege are unverified — Nevada says every one of the 185 voters DHS confirmed as suspect turned out to be a citizen on state records.
No judge or hearing date had been reported as of Wednesday morning. The case is separate from the September 24 suit by the same Democratic leaders seeking to block armed federal agents at polling places.