by John Solomon
A federal judge on Thursday cleared the way for President Donald Trump to implement his executive order tightening mail-in voting, slapping down Democrats’ arguments for now that federal efforts to police voter rolls with citizenship checks was illegal.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointed jurist, ruled that Democrats failed to show they have standing at present to challenge the order or have suffered any harm that would warrant a preliminary injunction.
“Given that the Executive Order does not command Plaintiffs to do anything, and that no agency has yet acted pursuant to the Order in a way that could harm Plaintiffs, they have not suffered any harm at present,” the judge wrote.
The Executive Order No. 14399, issued March 31, 2026, directs the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration to compile and share “State Citizenship Lists” of confirmed adult U.S. citizens using federal databases, while tasking the Postal Service with rulemaking on secure mail-in ballot design features (such as unique Intelligent Mail barcodes) and participation lists.
Nichols rejected several of the Democrats’ arguments that Trump’s executive order could disenfranchise millions of voters, including that creating state-by-state citizenship lists to check voter rolls would somehow be harmful, even if they were inaccurate.
“It remains speculative whether the State Citizenship Lists, if and when they are initially compiled, will contain inaccuracies,” he wrote. “Even if they contain initial inaccuracies, the Executive Order requires the adoption of procedures that will allow individuals to access and, if necessary, update or correct their information in the Lists.”
The judge also rejected the notion that the federal government sending information to the states about voters would somehow violate voters’ privacy.
“Plaintiffs fail to demonstrate that such action — that is, the sharing of name, age, and residence information between and among government agencies, if already known to the federal government—would cause a harm sufficient to establish Article III standing,” he ruled.
Judge Nichols’ decision leaves the door open for the plaintiffs in the consolidated cases — including the DSCC, DCCC, DNC, Democratic leaders including Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, along with groups like LULAC and the NAACP — to renew their challenges once implementation begins.
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John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist, author and digital media entrepreneur who serves as Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief of Just the News. Before founding Just the News, Solomon played key reporting and executive roles at some of America’s most important journalism institutions, such as The Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Newsweek, The Daily Beast and The Hill. Executive Editor of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network Christina Botteri contributed to this report.
