A federal judge in Washington, D.C., decided to rain on President Donald Trump’s election integrity parade. On Thursday, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, armed with a gavel and a no-nonsense attitude, put the kibosh on parts of Trump’s executive order that demanded voters flash their citizenship papers like it’s a VIP club entry requirement.
Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee who clearly didn’t get the memo about Trump’s love for executive orders, was like, “Hold up, Don. Congress and the states are the ones who get to DJ the federal election playlist, not you.” She blocked two provisions that tried to make the Election Assistance Commission rewrite voter registration forms to demand proof of citizenship faster than you can say “birth certificate.” The second provision was a sneaky attempt to make federal agencies play citizenship detective when registering public assistance folks to vote. Cue the judge’s eye-roll.
“Our Constitution’s like, ‘Yo, Prez, you don’t get to speed-run Congress’s job,’” Kollar-Kotelly basically wrote in her order, probably while sipping a coffee and chuckling at the audacity. She let three other provisions slide for now, saying challenges to mail-in ballots and citizenship data collection were like trying to review a movie before it’s out. “Take it up with the states,” she shrugged.
Meanwhile, the Republican-led House, clearly Team Trump’s cheer squad, passed a bill demanding proof-of-citizenship to vote, but it’s still gotta survive the Senate’s gauntlet before Trump can sign it with his signature gold Sharpie. Oh, and 25 states are out there brainstorming their own citizenship-proof laws, according to the Voting Rights Lab, which is basically the nerdiest scorekeeper for voting rules. Fun fact: 15 state constitutions are already like, “Non-citizens? No voting booth for you!”
But wait, there’s more! Trump’s bad day didn’t stop at voting rules. Two other federal judges in Maryland and New Hampshire were like, “Nah, fam,” and shut down his orders to axe diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in K-12 schools. The National Education Association, ACLU, and Maryland’s teacher squad sued, arguing that tying federal funding to scrapping DEI is a First Amendment no-no. The judges agreed, probably while humming “Sweet Caroline” in their heads.
Fox News Digital tried to get a hot take from the White House, but they were apparently too busy practicing for the next executive order speed-writing contest to respond.
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