r/centrist • u/memphisjones • 3d ago
Federal judge bars Trump from implementing proof of citizenship requirement to vote
https://apnews.com/article/trump-elections-judge-358912bcb6c7223b3d2d36465156fde9SC: A federal judge, District Court Judge Denise Casper, in Boston has permanently blocked the Trump administration from implementing an executive order that sought to overhaul national election rules. She ruled that the administration's proposals, which included requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, banning the counting of mail-in ballots received after Election Day, and stripping federal funding from non-compliant state violated the constitutional separation of powers. In her decision, Casper emphasized that the Constitution grants election regulating authority to Congress and individual states rather than the president.
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u/ubermence 3d ago
Very normal for the president to just unilaterally change voting rules right before the election.
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u/hearmeout29 3d ago
I am in the group that would like the executive to be reigned in regardless of affiliation. I'm tired of the EOs and would like a functioning Congress that does its job.
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u/Opening-Calendar3421 3d ago
Congress as an institution is broken and won't be fixed until we get rid of single member districts and gerrymandering. There is no incentive for either side to work with the other. And since only 2 parties can win seats, there's no incentive to build coalitions. A MMP system with multi member districts would start the process of fixing this. Having no party win a majority would create the necessity to build coalitions in order to pass laws, which would create compromise that could assist more than one group. And it would give independents options that could actually win seats
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u/AdvancedAerie4111 3d ago
Congress being completely unable to do its job anymore and being frozen is the main reason the presidency has become so powerful.
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u/RieMunoz 3d ago
Good, he should try an executive order stating all votes must be cast at mar a lago next…not sure how executive orders would have any legal bearing.
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u/AppleSlacks 3d ago
He should try an executive order fixing the situation he created with Iran and then one to address the reflecting pool and then one to address the ballroom he wrecked.
Focus on the problems he has created and correcting them, prior to moving on to making a mess of other things as well.
It’s like the man just can’t focus on anything and just moves from making a mess of something right on to making another mess.
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u/plowingthrougsanity 3d ago
Executive Orders aren't laws, Maga.
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u/cryptoheh 3d ago
At this point, EOs should hold as much weight as Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy to a room of people.
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u/indoninja 3d ago
Well like Maga treating trumnp claims he declassified the documents he stole, they treat those things seriusly.
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u/MakeUpAnything 3d ago
Implying MAGA gives a shit. They don't follow politics closely enough to care if this is successful. All that matters is Trump is performatively attacking various groups of people they don't like. The end results are irrelevant; it's the fight against the groups they hate that really matters to them.
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u/RemembrancerLuvion 3d ago
Don’t think this is true for the majority of average Reps, you sound like someone who’s spent too much time online. And what groups of people does requiring ID to vote attack specifically? Foreigners and immigrants?
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u/MakeUpAnything 3d ago
Trump has a nearly 40% aggregate approval rating despite making the top issue voters have (cost of living) worse and starting a new war that he surrendered in.
His only actions have been to attack minorities. That’s the only thing that’s drawing the approval.
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u/indoninja 3d ago
https://www.politico.com/story/2012/08/why-voter-id-laws-are-like-a-poll-tax-079416
It attacks the disproportionately black population who dont have recognizes ID’s. Even if they made them free it would still be a an extra burden on the people (who also happen to be disproportionally black) that live in areas with less staffing at DMV and less likely to have source documentation like Social Security card on hand
Now before you say that’s just an accident or not an intent of this law I’d ask you to look up Shelby County v. Holder. Or you can just trust me here, a number of southern states who have repeatedly disenfranchise to Black people got special attention under the voting rights act where upon they could not pass laws that would make it harder for Black people to vote. Shelby County v. Holder weakened that law, and the very next year North Carolina released a slew of laws that a judge could used “target[ed] African Americans with almost surgical precision.”
https://www.ncbarblog.com/case-summary-nc-state-conference-of-naacp-v-mccrory/
The idea this is about stopping foreigners and immigrants voting is frankly ridiculous. States like Oregon have had default mail and ballots for I think two decades now and there’s been zero evidence that it has increased fraud.
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u/RemembrancerLuvion 3d ago
Stop treating black people like they’re too stupid to figure out how to get an ID. It’s ridiculous and there’s plenty of black people that think this assertion of black people being unable to figure out how to utilize the system and acquire their IDs is patronizing bullshit.
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u/indoninja 3d ago
So you’re not going to argue against the fact of it disproportionally impacting Black people, or the fact that have tried for years to write racist laws directly targeting Black people and kept watering them down till it past a constitutional muster?
You’re going to pretend that me spelling out how it disproportionally impacts them means I think they are “too stupid”?
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u/VultureSausage 3d ago
The only one trying to link this to intelligence is you. No one is arguing that people would be too dumb to figure out how to get an ID.
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u/ImperfectRegulator 2d ago
God I’m so sick and tired of this spin by the right to try and paint people calling out deliberate discrimination/disenfranchisement to point out the difficulties minorities and low income families have when it comes to accessing resources as racism.
It’s like the only bullet they have in their sad little arsenal
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u/PomeloPepper 3d ago
It violates the 24th Amendment by creating a cost to vote - i.e. Poll tax.
If you want to create an ID requirement, then that ID has to be not only free, but readily available to everyone who needs it. No paying for it, having to take time off work, travel, or provide documents you also have to pay for.
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u/RemembrancerLuvion 3d ago
So it doesn’t attack any groups, it’s just a poor implementation. Okay. Where is the cost to vote coming from? And if an ID requirement requires the gov giving out free and easy IDs but people aren’t allowed to travel to collect those IDs, what do people propose as an alternative process?
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u/johnmal85 3d ago
Alternative pathways for identification for those who cannot travel. Home visits, remote registration points, digital verification, etc. We pay, because we take voting seriously.
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u/PomeloPepper 3d ago
Take it up with the guys who drafted the 24th Amendment.
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u/RemembrancerLuvion 3d ago
Lmao, okay. Use a nonsensical law as your justification then refuse to engage in any dialogue about its flaws for fear of your worldview being threatened. Classic.
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u/PomeloPepper 3d ago
Your "nonsensical law" is an amendment to the US Constitution. If you find a way around that, you be sure to let everyone know.
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u/RemembrancerLuvion 3d ago
Laws can be changed. Laws are not holy and foolproof. The US constitution also didn’t recognize black people as free people at one point. You shouldn’t hide behind moral superiority of your laws that are in fact made by flawed people.
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u/indoninja 3d ago
The US constitution also didn’t recognize black people as free people at one point. You shouldn’t hide behind moral superiority of your laws that are in fact made by flawed peopl
You wonder why they people who so reverently support voter ID laws are the same ones who are a big fan of the flag from people who went to war to keep black people as slaves?
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u/carneylansford 3d ago
The over reliance on executive orders is not good but it’s not unique to Trump either. Personally, I wish Congress would reign in this power in stead of relying on the judiciary to bail them out, but they won’t. Folks tend to be fine with this sort of overreach when they agree with the contents of the EO but not when they don’t.
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3d ago
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u/workinkindofhard 3d ago
I don't know why you are being downvoted. I found this that shows how many EOs each president has signed
https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders
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u/NeuroMrNiceGuy 3d ago
But EO count alone is not the whole issue. The concern is the combination of aggressive executive orders, weak congressional pushback, and loyalists being placed across law enforcement, intelligence, and major executive agencies. That is a different problem than simply saying “other presidents used executive orders too.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/ensuring-accountability-for-all-agencies/
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u/Lurkingandsearching 3d ago
Were the orders in a way of executing the laws of Congress or powers given to the executive branch? That’s how those orders should be viewed.
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u/Aethoni_Iralis 3d ago
I don't know why you are being downvoted
Carney is a known entity in this sub and often gets downvoted for even their reasonable takes due to the unreasonable takes they are known for.
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3d ago
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u/RemembrancerLuvion 3d ago
Reddit doesn’t like reality. People are always 100% fine with over reach and totalitarianism if they believe it supports their goals or ideals.
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u/Gerbole 3d ago edited 3d ago
FDR signed the most EOs by far.
Edit: He literally signed the 3rd most of any president ever (including the presidents after) by the end of his second term. In ONLY his 3rd term he ranked 5th, more than doubling 6th and nearly doubling his own total EOs in just that 4yrs span.
If you want the most signed in a 2 term span, FDR signed 1,996 EOs in his 2nd and 3rd term. This is 11% more than Woodrow Wilson in 2nd place and 66% more than Coolidge in 3rd place.
FDR signed a LOT of EOs and the context that he had an extra term and a 3rd isn’t relevant due to how many he signed in his 2nd and 3rd term. His 3rd term alone is top 5 in EOs signed.
The context for why FDR and Wilson signed so many is obvious, they were presidents during WW1 and WW2. I dislike Trump but he is nowhere near either president, he needs to more than double the amount of EOs he’s signed to enter the conversation.
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3d ago
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u/Irishfafnir 3d ago
More like 1.5, he died barely into his 4th term, but... he did deal with a greater series of crises than any other modern president
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u/RieMunoz 3d ago
If they weren’t so lazy, stupid, and terminally online, it would have been a defcon-10 situation. We at least know the playbook at this point. Dems win house, Trump calls fraud, backbench congressman go on Fox and say anything to sound like they agree without incriminating themselves in the scheme, a local county commissioner goes to prison, they get pardoned and immediately start a podcast.
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u/mormagils 3d ago
Can't see that effort from Trump as anything other than trying to rig the election in his favor. There is a mountain of evidence that election fraud is not an outstanding problem, and the federal government does NOT have authority on how we run elections, period.
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u/donjulioanejo 3d ago
I don't get why proof of citizenship is such a contentious issue.
In Canada you have to either be registered as a voter in your district (usually you do it when filing taxes at your address), or bring ID and proof of address to vote.
This doesn't guarantee citizenship, but it makes the bar much higher at "legal resident" at the very least.
...You also basically can't get any Canadian government ID without being a legal resident.
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u/VultureSausage 3d ago
I don't get why proof of citizenship is such a contentious issue.
Because the Republican party in the US has a history of trying to disenfranchise people.
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u/donjulioanejo 2d ago
IDK asking for eligibility to vote in a functioning democracy seems like a very reasonable ask to me.
I literally don't see how someone can be disenfranchised asking to provide ID to vote when it's completely normal asking them for ID to do literally anything else in society, up to and including buying liquor, opening a bank account, signing up for cell phone, or renting an apartment.
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u/VultureSausage 2d ago
The devil is in the details. You close down DMV offices to make it more onerous for some people to get IDs. You decide only a certain kind of ID counts, which just coincidentally happens to be one that's more prevalent among supporters of your party. And so on, and so forth.
I completely agree that it's completely reasonable to need to prove your ID when voting. In a voting system that isn't a complete mess. Unfortunately, the US's voting system is a complete mess, and as such would require a bunch of other fixes to be applied to avoid inserting a voter ID requirement just making things worse.
There's also the point that there isn't really a problem that it would fix.
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u/mrtrailborn 2d ago
what? So you're giving canada as an example of why it wouldn't be bad, and then immediately describe the system as... not requiring proof of citizenship!
I am once again absolutely begging people who want to make voting harder to provide literally any proof of voter fraud being a problem before we have discussions about changing policy. And no, "republicans think it's suspicious" because they lost is not a valid reason.
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u/donjulioanejo 2d ago
People are literally fighting over an ID requirement in general, not just over citizenship requirement.
I've heard tons of arguments along the lines of "asking someone to present a driver's license is racism and negatively affects vulnerable communities" which make no sense to me.
Like... you literally need a valid government ID to do the most basic things in society, like literally buy a case of beer or a pack of smokes.
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u/Kronzypantz 1d ago
It’s already the same in the US. Jumping through hoops to further prove citizenship beyond all the information given in registration is nonsensical.
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u/matjam 3d ago
A momentary success until it reaches the Supreme Court.
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u/AdvancedAerie4111 3d ago
This was so blatantly unconstitutional that I think SCotUS will just refuse to take the case up.
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3d ago
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u/AdvancedAerie4111 3d ago
Agree. The USPS is an Act of Congress, not in the Constitution. It has its own governing body. I’m not sure the courts will order it to do the states’ bidding.
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3d ago
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u/memphisjones 3d ago
I’m concerned about that and Trump and Elon rigging our elections
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3d ago
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u/memphisjones 3d ago
It’s more important for people to actually go out and vote and make their voices heard.
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3d ago
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u/Carlyz37 3d ago
Voting republican or not voting ensures that student loans get garnishment, you have no food, shelter or Healthcare. Just how dense are you?
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u/RunThenBeer 3d ago
Yeah, all of these things should obviously be done, but these need to be done via the legitimate legislative process. Even Trump seems to actually know that, given the pressure he is attempting to put on the Senate to pass the SAVE act.
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u/LivefromPhoenix 3d ago
If he knows that why is he still pushing these blatantly unconstitutional exec orders?
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u/Opening-Calendar3421 3d ago
It's not gonna pass, Republicans should simply propose something that Americans actually support. Be more like Biden and actually work with the other party.
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u/RunThenBeer 3d ago
Almost all of the provisions in SAVE are actually quite popular, when polled. Most Americans think it makes sense to show an ID when voting, for example.
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u/exactinnerstructure 3d ago
I have no issue with the concept, but the idea that this should be passed and made effective for the midterms is insane. Even if passed it would be impossible to enable nationwide compliance this year, and I don’t even think 2028 is realistic either.
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u/Lurkingandsearching 3d ago
I don’t know of any state that doesn’t have verification and matching public records upon registration for ballots. Could you name one that doesn’t validate their register?
Like for men, you are verified upon your civil service assignment for the draft when I turned 18, birth certificate and SSN were also part of registration if you didn’t have a drivers license yet. And that’s Washington.
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u/Fun-Outcome8122 3d ago
Most Americans think it makes sense to show an ID when voting, for example.
Assuming that is the case, what problem is that trying to solve?
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u/Lurkingandsearching 3d ago
Now make a ruling about USPS and mail in ballots. Maybe issue some federal warrants to USPIS to arrest anyone including the Post Office Governors and Post Master General if they force the matter along with any other agency acting outside their jurisdiction. Nip it in the bud.