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Judge blocks Trump admin from requiring Americans to show proof of citizenship to vote · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: We have breaking news tied to President Trump's push to
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  Speaker 1: give himself more control over America's elections. Federal judge is
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  Speaker 1: just block key pieces of Trump's twenty twenty five executive
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  Speaker 1: order on elections, specifically banning Trump from requiring people to
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  Speaker 1: show proof of citizenship in order to vote. MS Now
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  Speaker 1: Senior legal reporter Lisa Rubin is here. Tim O'Brien is
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  Speaker 1: still with us. The judge, Lisa says, this is a
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  Speaker 1: separation of powers issue. Tell us more well, you.
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  Speaker 2: Know, Alicia, under the Constitution, most control over elections is
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  Speaker 2: given to the states, and part of what the President
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  Speaker 2: was trying to do here through this executive order was
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  Speaker 2: common deear for himself the right to decide how elections
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  Speaker 2: are administered in states. This is a judge that previously
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  Speaker 2: had granted a preliminary injunction or a block on most
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  Speaker 2: of the provisions that were challenged here, but here she's
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  Speaker 2: now making it more permanent and saying that what Trump
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  Speaker 2: has tried to do through this executive order doesn't just
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  Speaker 2: pose a separation or challenge problem, it's unlawful under existing
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  Speaker 2: federal law that protects, for example, people who live overseas
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  Speaker 2: and are part of our military is inconsistent with aspects
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  Speaker 2: of the law that protect their right to vote. One
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  Speaker 2: of the reasons why is because it authorized the Attorney
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  Speaker 2: General to prosecute states that were counting ballots received after
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  Speaker 2: election day, even if they were postmarked by or before
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  Speaker 2: election day. That's an issue that's live right now before
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  Speaker 2: the Supreme Court. Right, but Trump was also trying to
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  Speaker 2: take matters into his own hands and through this executive order,
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  Speaker 2: direct the Attorney General to actually commence prosecutions of states
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  Speaker 2: that have this as part of their policy. Thirteen states
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  Speaker 2: that allow this were among the plaintiffs who sued against
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  Speaker 2: this executive order to try and block its enforcement. So
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  Speaker 2: today the chief judge of a federal court in Massachusetts saying,
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  Speaker 2: in a fifty nine page ruling, you may not do this.
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  Speaker 2: You may not take for yourself the right to decide
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  Speaker 2: how elections are administered in this country and say that
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  Speaker 2: the National Voter Registration Form are the postcard used for
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  Speaker 2: military members to register, that they have to include documentary
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  Speaker 2: proof of citizenship before we.
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  Speaker 3: Will allow you to vote.
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  Speaker 1: So what happens next.
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  Speaker 2: I think the preliminary injunction that was already issued is
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  Speaker 2: on appeal but that argument is not even scheduled until
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  Speaker 2: after the election, So today's ruling doesn't change the state
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  Speaker 2: of play necessarily going into the November election. But this
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  Speaker 2: is sort of a tetris piece that is moving with
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  Speaker 2: respect to other things. I just mentioned that Supreme Court case,
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  Speaker 2: the Watson case, in which the whole question is whether
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  Speaker 2: or not allowing the counting after election day interferes with
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  Speaker 2: another federal law that defines election day as a particular
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  Speaker 2: Tuesday in November. So you've got I think this particular
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  Speaker 2: case will continue to move in ways that don't impact
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  Speaker 2: the election. But the larger and broader issue about do
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  Speaker 2: states have to turn over voter rules so that the
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  Speaker 2: national government can determine whether somebody is a citizen, or
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  Speaker 2: can we count particular ballots after election even if.
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  Speaker 3: They're voted before.
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  Speaker 2: Those issues remain very live in related litigation and in
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  Speaker 2: related policy.
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  Speaker 1: I was about to say they remain alive in the litigation.
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  Speaker 1: They remain alive on Capitol Hill right now, where the
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  Speaker 1: President was willing to torpedo a housing build because they
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  Speaker 1: want Senate Republicans to pass the Save America Act. They
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  Speaker 1: recognize it is rife with problems. It is not popular
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  Speaker 1: with the American people that the Postmaster General is on
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  Speaker 1: the hill today and is going to have to answer
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  Speaker 1: questions about the administrations using usps in order to tinker
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  Speaker 1: with American elections. They won't back off.
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  Speaker 3: Of this using a federal agency essentially to override the Constitution,
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  Speaker 3: you know, to pick up on a point that Lisa made,
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  Speaker 3: which is that states run elections, the federal government doesn't.
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  Speaker 3: The Constitution didn't give the president and the executive branch
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  Speaker 3: any special providence over elections. And I think Trump is
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  Speaker 3: trying to see the water here. Not only to interview
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  Speaker 3: interview with voter turnout on election day, which is why
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  Speaker 3: all these machinations are happening around direct mail and and
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  Speaker 3: other issues pertaining to the midterms, it's that he wants
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  Speaker 3: to create the idea that there's malfeasance, that there are
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  Speaker 3: illegal acts going on, because the federal government is allowed
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  Speaker 3: to insert itself in state electoral processes if there's evidence
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  Speaker 3: of malfeasance. And so that historically has come out of
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  Speaker 3: the civil rights movement, when when the federal government got
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  Speaker 3: involved with protecting black voters in the South to make
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  Speaker 3: sure that their ability to vote was protected. That's a
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  Speaker 3: very positive side of federal intervention. The negative side is
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  Speaker 3: if you have someone in the Oval office who is
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  Speaker 3: a tyrant and wants to overturn the law and can
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  Speaker 3: invoke malfeasance as a way to get into different states
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  Speaker 3: during the mid terms where he wants to meddle with
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  Speaker 3: the vote.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it would help explain why you don't want
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  Speaker 1: to pass legislation that would actually be popular in November.
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  Speaker 3: Totally assass