A US judge on Thursday partially barred an executive order issued by President Donald Trump, aimed at sweeping election reforms.
The development is the latest legal setback as Trump pushes his agenda.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly specifically prevented the Trump administration from requiring voters to provide proof of US citizenship when registering to vote at the state level.
The executive order, signed at the end of March, set its sights on restricting mail-in voting, which Trump has criticised for years.
As soon as it was signed, the order faced legal challenges with the Democratic Party itself launching court proceedings against it.
The judge justified enacting a preliminary injunction against Trump’s order by arguing that on further review of “the merits, the plaintiffs are substantially likely to prevail.”;
“Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States, not the President, with the authority to regulate federal elections,”; Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her 120-page decision.
She declined to block another significant part of the executive order, which required states to impose a deadline for mail-in ballots coinciding with the close of polls on Election Day.
DAILY POST reports that although US citizenship is required to vote in federal elections, not all states require voters to bring documents attesting to their citizenship status, opting instead for other verification methods.
States that failed to comply with the executive order were threatened with having their federal election funding cut off.
