National League perspectives on recent court cases
The League of Women Voters is actively challenging the restrictions to mail-in voting we have been seeing from the Trump administration: the League of Women Voters (US) and its Massachusetts League are parties on the lawsuit in federal court. Follow updates about the court cases through the the League.
The view from Oregon
Summary and analysis by Abigail Bok, LWV of Coos County
In August, the Coos County LWV Newsletter included a summary of what was happening with the Trump administration’s Executive Order 14399, issued in March of this year—and there are new developments.
What’s in the Executive Order?
- The Department of Homeland Security Secretary is ordered to create lists of citizens eligible to vote.
- The Attorney General is directed to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of those violating federal laws by issuing ballots to ineligible voters.
- The U.S. Postal Service is ordered to design and implement a rule that would allow USPS to select for delivery only those mailed ballots that are destined for the people on the DHS citizenship lists.
How Did the Court Rule?
On Aug. 24, the Supreme Court ruled that the executive order has not yet done harm to the states because none of the items called for in the order has become operational; therefore the lawsuits challenging the order were premature. They sent the matter back to the federal court that has blocked the executive order as unconstitutional and reserved the right to reconsider its legality after the federal government has operationalized the order.
The Supreme Court majority’s reasoning was that the President has the right to manage federal agencies as he sees fit and the states were attempting to interfere with that right. They also asserted that the states would not be harmed if the federal court’s order were paused because the executive order doesn’t require the states to do anything.
On Aug. 27, a federal District Court judge yet again blocked the Post Office’s implementation of its vote-by-mail policy.
On Sept. 4, 2026, the same federal judge ruled that her Aug. 27 order, set to expire on Sept. 10, is now in place indefinitely unless a higher court allows the Trump administration to put his Executive Order into effect.
See the LWVUS Library/Newspage for Sept. 5, 2026: A federal District Court today issued a preliminary injunction blocking the US Postal Service (USPS) from enforcing key parts of a rule that would have operationalized President Trump’s March 31 executive order restricting mail voting. Under the rule, the Postal Service would have refused to deliver mail ballots to certain voters. The court found that the rule was likely unconstitutional and unlawful — and that enforcing it would make voter disenfranchisement “practically inevitable.”
What Does This Mean for Oregon?
It is not true that the executive order does not require the states to do anything. Elections don’t happen in a vacuum; each one requires months of planning and expenditure.
- For the Postal Service to use the DHS citizenship lists, the states would have to supply copies of their unredacted voter rolls to DHS. Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read back in January won a court ruling saying that while the federal government can obtain a copy of the state’s redacted voter rolls, it would be a violation of the SOS’s oath of office to supply the unredacted database, because sharing that information is forbidden under Oregon law and he is sworn to uphold state law.
- Oregon ballot envelopes have already been designed and printed. If the executive order went into effect, new envelopes with a federal barcode identifying voters from the federal database would have to be created at the counties’ expense.
Other Concerns
The database of legal voters that DHS is supposed to create would rely on the federal SAVE system to verify citizenship status. SAVE was created to help government agencies determine immigrants’ eligibility for services. SAVE has been shown to have widespread inaccuracies and to be out of date, resulting in false findings of ineligibility.
Currently the State of Oregon uses the Social Security Administration’s database to check citizenship status. The SSA database also has inaccuracies, but is generally considered better than SAVE. Also, the state checks the SSA information against other sources to eliminate errors, which the federal government is not equipped to do.
Provision 2 of the executive order would criminalize accidental registration of noncitizen voters. This means that elections officials and even DMV employees could be charged with a felony if a noncitizen is sent a ballot. Audits have consistently shown that noncitizen voting is extremely rare (0.0001% according to a 2016 audit) but errors happen in the registration process. Provision 2 would lead to elections officials creating new rules making it more difficult to register to vote, in order to protect themselves from liability.
Another Setback for Executive Order about Voting
Last month we reported on a federal judge in Massachusetts blocking implementation of President Trump’s executive order 14248, which would have made extensive changes to voting rules nationwide. The same district court has now blocked the U.S. Postal Service from implementing Section 3 of the executive order, which would have jeopardized vote-by-mail in Oregon. The order would have prevented the Postal Service from delivering mailed ballots because the state refused to share personal data from its voter rolls with the federal government. The new ruling states that “the executive branch has no authority to regulate elections,” and it recognized that the executive order is causing “irreparable harm” to voters and voting rights groups by creating confusion about mail balloting. The League of Women Voters of Massachusetts was among the plaintiffs in this second case. The administration has appealed the previous ruling to the Supreme Court and will probably do the same with this ruling.
League Gets a Win on Voter Registration
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a rule in August 2025 barring third-party civic groups like the League from registering voters at naturalization ceremonies. The Campaign Legal Center sued in a Maryland federal court on behalf of LWVUS and several state and local Leagues. On August 3, the District Court of Maryland issued an order blocking the new rule and restoring the ability of civic organizations to offer registration services at naturalization ceremonies. LWVUS CEO Celina Stewart said, “For generations, the League has stood beside new citizens as they take the oath of citizenship and prepare to make their voices heard at the ballot box. . . . When people become American citizens, they should be welcomed into full participation in civic life, not met with new barriers.” The League of Women Voters has long been a leader in voter registration. In 2024, the League registered more than 15% of all new citizens.
SAVE America Act Update
The Senate once again failed to pass the SAVE America Act, S.3752, before heading off for recess until mid-September. It has passed the House of Representatives but has repeatedly failed to meet the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate. But opponents can’t relax: supporters are pursuing alternative pathways to passage, including attaching its provisions to broader funding bills and trying to pass it through the budget reconciliation process, which would not require 60 votes to pass the Senate.
LWVUS Expands Investment in State and Local Leagues
The national League offers grants to state and local Leagues through its Making Democracy Work program. For fiscal year 2026, LWVUS doubled its investment in the program, awarding $550,000 in grants all around the country to ensure that communities have the resources they need to educate voters, protect elections, and mobilize participation where it matters most.
Last year’s grants were leveraged to
- engage more than 4.8 million people online and in person;
- support the hosting of 5,600 voter education events, forums, and rallies;
- recruit of 10,500 volunteers; and
- contribute more than 136,000 volunteer hours, generating over $4.7 million
in volunteer service value.
The Count Stands at 23
The U.S. Department of Justice has been trying to force states to turn over their unredacted voter files. The DOJ has filed multiple lawsuits demanding the information. Unlike the publicly available basic voter information, which anyone can request, the unredacted files contain driver’s licenses, Social Security numbers, and more. Sharing of that information by the states could threaten voter privacy and might enable Disenfranchisement.
Last year Oregon became the first state to win a ruling against the DOJ. Including August rulings, 23 states have now won rulings protecting their voter data. The federal government has not won a lawsuit over demands for voter data in any court.
