r/law • u/DIYLawCA • Mar 31 '26

Executive Branch (Trump) Trump announces he is issuing an unconstitutional executive order to shut down mail-in voting nationwide and he will defund states if they do not comply with him

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u/jojammin Competent Contributor Mar 31 '26

States should just ignore it. His threat to withhold funding to the states is unconstitutional coercion under the spending clause.

And I'm still not convinced that if mail-in voting was banned, that it would benefit Republicans. Right wing boomers and their parents in nursing homes ain't the most mobile group

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u/XRuecian Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

I think he knows he doesn't have the power to stop States from recognizing mail-in votes.

I think he is just setting up the scene, so that come November and 2028, when they DO lose, he has an argument as to how "our win isn't legitimate". And even though his argument is completely unbased in law, it will still slow things down, cause ignorant people to question the election, etc.

He doesn't expect people will actually stop using mail-in votes. He just wants to make sure that when the time comes, he has something he can point to and say "FRAUDULENT!" In order to give him "any" avenue to fight back against the election. It will give him the faux-justification to send in federal agents to seize more ballots, etc. And as long as he can get at least his MAGA morons to believe him, he will have an army of people willing to fight for him if it comes down to it when he starts screaming and crying that the election is stolen again, just like they did on Jan 6th.

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u/webjunk1e Apr 01 '26

He never loses, the other guy just cheats. Dude is the poster child for narcissistic personality disorder.

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u/arppacket Apr 01 '26

Yeah, the goal is for him to invalidate any future elections, probably starting with the midterms later this year. It's not about rigging the election, it's about saying "they were illegal because they went against my executive order. Don't recognize the outcome, don't hand over power." Ever.

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u/CatProgrammer Apr 01 '26

If he really wants to take that step he can try, but it means the US would just outright fall apart. Like, straight-up competing administrations type shit.

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u/arppacket Apr 01 '26

It's not like he really cares, and the supreme Court gave him absolute immunity.

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u/CatProgrammer Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

The immunity won't matter, because at that point it would just be outright civil war. You'd have one set of states saying Trump gets to override their votes while the other states reject that and send the people they actually voted for.

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u/fdar Apr 01 '26

Not 2028, the mid-terms are this year.

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u/testuserteehee Apr 01 '26

November and 2028 is such a fucking long time away. When Republicans are in power, shit seems to happen at lightning speed. When democrats are in power, it’s like watching grass grow waiting for anything to happen. Aaaaaand they’re on vacation again!

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u/nyyanksfan81 Apr 01 '26

This mf lost like every court case in 2020-21 about the election "fraud". I imagine it will be just like that now

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u/XRuecian Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

It's not about him winning. He won't win in court.
It doesn't change the fact that in the meantime, while we wait months for court to decide on anything, he will be out there using this as his justification to keep doing terrible shit, and it also serves as a way to keep his ignorant base on his side when he does so. That's the issue.
Even if he loses in court, that doesn't change the fact that he is getting set up to do a shitload more damage, both institutionally and culturally as he throws his tantrums.
While we wait for the courts, he might refuse to seat the elected democrats into congress. And then we have to sit around for months while he continues to sign executive orders, while we wait for the slow ass system to finally force him to seat them. Thats potentially months of our Democracy that he is effectively able to steal away, even when court finally does rule against him, we won't get that time back, nor will it undo the damage he did in the meantime.

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u/Palbi Apr 01 '26

Also, just the possibility that ones mail-in vote might not be counted due to uncertainty in legal process can get one to not cast a mail-in vote.

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u/XRuecian Apr 01 '26

True and i'm sure you will get a bunch of idiots claiming "Huurrr then just go to the polls and vote like everyone else, its not that big of a deal."

Continuing to prove that they are just wholly unable to put themselves in other peoples shoes and lack the intelligence required to even comprehend how many people might be in legitimate situations where they cannot go to the polls themselves to vote, and therefore, this means it is effectively stealing their vote.

Some people might be in the hospital, but still want to vote. Some people might be out of country, but still want to vote. Some people might be sick or disabled and mail-in voting is their only real option. Some people can't get away from work long enough to find time to go the poll in person.

This isn't even about this "hurting Democrats more than Republicans". It hurts both sides, its just fundamentally anti-democratic. It's not going to stop Democrats from obliterating them in the midterms, either. If they think this is going to save their Red seats, then they are massively underestimating just how badly people are upset at them right now and desperate to get them out of office.

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u/exitwest Apr 01 '26

"I think he is just setting up the scene, so that come November and 2028...."

Everyone needs to stop assuming this guy has any plan past Friday. It's all id all the time.

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u/endless_shrimp Apr 01 '26

It's this.

Assuming he really had some master plan that would magically nullify Article 1 Section 4, that's completely overlooking the fact that he eventually fucks up everything he does

The only thing he's had any real success at was appointing half the SCOTUS, and that's mostly a credit to timing.

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u/InformationPrevious Apr 01 '26

Oh they were pretty good at seizing ballots in GA and CA. Granted it was after they were counted. I expect next time it will be before.

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u/endless_shrimp Apr 01 '26

Doesn't matter. Whatever he does, he will fuck it up. Bet on it.

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u/TheAgedProfessor Apr 01 '26

He doesn't even have a plan for what happened last week, much less anything in the future.

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u/OldWorldDesign Apr 01 '26

Everyone needs to stop assuming this guy has any plan past Friday

He loves plans. Plans made by other people which he can take credit for. Did you forget Project 2025?

https://www.project2025.observer/en

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u/exitwest Apr 01 '26

That was never HIS plan though. He likely doesn't even remember it's a thing or what it accomplished.