In its ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to implement his executive order, signed in March, that clamps down on mail-in voting by demanding proof of U.S. citizenship. The 10-page court ruling pauses an injunction imposed by a federal judge that stopped the federal government from implementing provisions in the order, according to the Scotus Blog website.
Describing the executive order, AFR's "At the Core" co-host Rick Green told his audience the U.S. Postal Service was ordered by Trump to create new guidelines that prevent mail-in ballots from going to non-citizens.
“It doesn't even tell the Post Office how to do it. It just says go figure out, through your rulemaking process, which is a pretty extended process,” he said.
Another provision in the executive order orders the Department of Homeland Security to compile a “State Citizenship List,” with the cooperation from the Social Security Administration and its data, and to share that list with states before elections.
Since the executive order requires cooperation from state governments, 23 blue states have sued to fight the rules while 12 red states are supporting it in the courts.
Describing the lawsuit from the blue states, Green said their legal argument is they will be prosecuted by the Department of Justice if someone breaks the law by voting illegally. The court’s justices basically laughed at that claim, he said, because there is no new criminal offense in the executive order.
The flimsy legal argument from blue states also got the attention of Hans von Spakovsky, a legal analyst at Advancing American Freedom. He told "Washington Watch" the states lack legal standing because they couldn't show the courts how the order harms them.
"There was nothing in the executive order telling states they had to use that list," he observed. "But, yet, states went to court wanting an injunction saying, 'We don't want to get that list'—a list that could help them find aliens who are illegally registered to vote."
President Trump’s executive order is legal, Green insisted, because the federal government has the authority over immigration policy. That includes determining who is a U.S. citizen.
“And so, yes, absolutely, the federal government has the authority, and the president has the authority, to help the states know who's a citizen and who's not,” Green said.
With the injunction lifted Monday, there is now time for the U.S. Postal Service to implement new rules that track mail-in ballots and clamp down on fraud.
“If they can get the Postal Service rule adopted in time,” Green summarized, “it basically prevents these blue states from using the post office to mail out these ballots to everyone in the county, or everyone in the state, which opens the door for the cheating that we know occurs.”
