Stating the Obvious

The election-related executive order President Trump signed this week is an overreach of his authority—in more than one way.

Elections are run by the states. We’ve been saying this for a while now, but the Constitution has said it for considerably longer. It’s been there since 1788, right there in Article I: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections … shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof”. Congress is the only branch of the federal government with the power to set election laws.

Trump’s attempt to determine the “manner” in which elections are held—national deadlines for mail-in ballots, national rules about voter registration forms, and more—is an attempt to grab power away from Congress and the states. Further, several changes Trump is attempting to make would only be made possible by turning an independent bipartisan federal agency into an arm of the executive branch. When the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) was created by Congress in 2002, it was made to be independent on purpose. It should stay that way.

When President George W. Bush signed the Help America Vote Act—the legislation that created the EAC—into law in 2002, he acknowledged that it’s not the federal government’s job to manage how elections are run. “The administration of elections is primarily a state and local responsibility,” he said. “The fairness of all elections, however, is a national priority.”

This attempted overreach poses a threat to our decentralized, nonpartisan system of election administration. More than 150 million Americans voted last November. (And some have voted in spring elections as recently as this week!) Those elections have been smooth thanks to the work of state and local election officials. It’s best if they keep holding the reins.

➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts about Federal Overreach of States’ Authority to Administer Elections

This Week in Democracy

• President Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order aiming to drastically reshape elections – which he does not have the constitutional authority to do. The order blatantly disregards the Constitution and attempts to grab power away from both the states and Congress. State officials from across the country pushed back strongly and immediately.

“Since 1788—plainly spelled out in Article 1 of the Constitution and repeatedly affirmed by the Supreme Court—elections are run by the states,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said.

“The bottom line is that this is an executive order that will have the effect of making it harder for Oregon citizens to vote and make our elections less secure and less safe,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said.

➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts about Federal Overreach of States’ Authority to Administer Elections

• Trump administration officials shared sensitive military information and coordinated national defense plans in an unsecured group chat, according to reporting from a magazine editor that was inadvertently included in the thread. American Oversight, a nonpartisan government watchdog organization, sued for violations of the Federal Records Act and Administrative Procedure Act. On Thursday, a judge ordered the officials to preserve the messages, in accordance with federal records laws.

“I’m still wondering who is going to be held accountable,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a decorated Army veteran, said in an interview.

• A group of 21 state attorneys general published an open letter to the legal community this week, warning that the president’s recent actions “seek to break apart the very foundation of the law [they] practice.”

The letter comes amidst continuing Trump administration efforts to undermine our court system, quell legal opposition, and avoid accountability. Some of Trump’s latest actions have included: sanctions against private law firms that have opposed him, a memo ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue sanctions against attorneys that file lawsuits that the administration deems “unreasonable”, and continued attacks on judges.

➡️ READ: Americans Agree: The President Should Respect Court Rulings

• A panel of federal judges denied the Trump administration’s request to overturn a ruling temporarily blocking deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. The judge who issued the block must first decide whether the deportations are legal, after which the ruling could be appealed.

“The true mark of this great Nation under law is that we adhere to legal requirements even when it is hard,” one of the judges wrote.’

           ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About the Alien Enemies Act

• Another panel of federal judges denied the Trump administration’s request to temporarily suspend a ruling blocking it from freezing federal funding to states. The case was brought by a coalition of 23 state attorneys general, joined by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

This week, the state officials filed a new motion seeking to enforce a previous order and compel the administration to restore funds to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). As of March 12, at least 215 FEMA grants to at least 19 states were still frozen, according to the officials.

➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About Unlawful Attempts to Freeze Federal Funds

• A federal judge blocked the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing Americans’ sensitive personal data at three federal agencies. Last week, another judge blocked DOGE from accessing personal data at the Social Security Administration.

“No matter how important or urgent the President’s DOGE agenda may be, federal agencies must execute it in accordance with the law,” one of the judges wrote. “That likely did not happen in this case.”