President Donald Trump’s push to remake how Americans vote can proceed for now, after a federal judge refused to freeze it before the midterm primaries.
The order, signed March 31, tells the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration to build state lists of voting-age citizens and hand them to election officials, NPR reported. The Postal Service, independent of the White House, would deliver mail ballots only to people on those lists.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, ruled late Wednesday that the suit came too soon because the order has not taken effect, the Associated Press (AP) reported. “Plaintiffs may, of course, renew their motions if and when those future actions occur. Until then, however, Plaintiffs cannot show that preliminary injunctive relief is warranted,” Nichols wrote, according to the AP. (RELATED: Trump To Crack Down On Mail-In Voting With New Executive Order)
Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, brought the lawsuit, and party lawyers claimed the order could cut millions out of the vote, NBC News reported. They argue the Constitution gives states, not the president, control over elections, and that lists from federal databases would wrongly flag lawful voters because the records often lag.
BREAKING: A federal judge refuses to block President Trump’s order to create a federal voter list and limit mail voting. https://t.co/U7mQnvMRrD
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 28, 2026
The order is not yet in effect. In early May, the administration told the court that agencies were still deciding how to apply it, NPR reported. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche later told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee the Justice Department is working with other agencies to “make sure” the order’s goals are met.
Trump has tried twice to remake elections by executive order. Several federal judges blocked his first attempt, which would have required documentary proof of citizenship to register, the AP reported. None of the changes will touch the primaries still running into next month.
Five lawsuits are challenging the order, and the three filed in Washington, D.C. produced Wednesday’s decision, NPR reported. Two others in Massachusetts could bring rulings as early as June.
Challengers vowed to keep fighting. “We are ready to resume the fight if and when the administration takes those next steps,” said Juan Proaño, chief executive officer of the League of United Latin American Citizens, according to the AP.