Keeping Voters on the Rolls — and Presidents in Bounds

How our movement's latest court victory stopped the president from single-handedly changing how Americans register to vote

Much like an iceberg, some wins can appear small on the surface while enormous underneath. This is one of those.

Last Friday, our strategic litigation partner Campaign Legal Center (CLC) won a federal court ruling that permanently blocks the administration from forcing a documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement onto voter registration forms nationwide — a requirement the president tried to jam through by executive order back in March.

The judge said, in plain constitutional English: The president doesn’t get to run elections; that power sits with Congress and the states. It’s Separation of Powers 101.

Why does this matter? Because DPOC (or “documentary proof of citizenship”) rules sound harmless if you already have your paperwork in a neat file drawer. But at scale they block millions of perfectly eligible voters — military families who move a lot, students, naturalized citizens whose documents are in a safe-deposit box three states away, older voters who don’t have easy access to records. The court understood that you can’t let the executive branch invent new registration hurdles and call it “security.” The Constitution just doesn’t allow it.

Why you should feel some ownership of this win

Bright America isn’t just cheering from the bleachers here. One of our core commitments has been: when partners go to court to stop executive overreach (whether it be in elections or anywhere else), we amplify, we fund, we tell the story, and we connect it to the everyday experience of people who just want to the freedoms that ought to come with living in America.

That’s what happened here.

• We said presidential power over elections has to stay limited. A federal judge just agreed.

• We said the burden of these schemes always lands on the same communities. The filings make that point clearly.

So yes — while your name may not be on the masthead of this lawsuit — this victory belongs to each and every person who has made a donation, upgraded to a paid subscription, attended one of our events, or even given encouragement and moral support.

This work is for all of us, and generations of Americans who will likely never know how much was required to defend the rule of law and protect our Constitution from unprecedented abuses of power.

Let’s Celebrate in Person!

We’ll be at the Texas Tribune Festival next week and would love to meet you if you’re in Austin. We’re hosting a happy hour with our friends at Principles First to gather good people who value the rule of law. So feel free to stop by if you’re around and we can raise a glass to all the good work being done and funded by those who care.

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