Press Release  AG Campbell Moves To Permanently Block President Trump's Executive Order Restricting Mail Voting, Exerting Federal Control Over Elections

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell co-led a coalition of 23 attorneys general, along with the Governor of Pennsylvania, in filing a motion for summary judgment in their ongoing challenge to President Trump’s Executive Order that unlawfully attempts to interfere with states’ constitutional powers by restricting voter eligibility and mail voting to lists of voters pre-authorized by the federal government. States have important constitutional authority to administer elections, which includes, in large part, the regulation of federal elections. The President has no constitutional authority to make or alter laws governing federal elections.  

Earlier this month, AG Campbell co-led the same coalition in bringing a lawsuit against the Administration, arguing that Executive Order No. 14399, entitled Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections, is unconstitutional and beyond the authority of the President and other federal officials. Today’s motion for summary judgment asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to permanently block enforcement of the key provisions of the Executive Order on the grounds that the law is clear, and the case can be decided without a trial. 

“Today, I’m asking the Court to permanently block the President from implementing his illegal Executive Order that attempts to restrict voting rights,” said AG Campbell. “The Constitution gives states – not the White House – the authority to oversee elections, and I will not back down from ensuring that every eligible voter in Massachusetts can cast their ballot and have their vote counted.” 

The coalition’s motion for summary judgment argues, among other things, that: 

• The Executive Order’s attempt to dictate federal voter eligibility lists for each state, and its attempt to coerce states to deny ballots to voters excluded from those lists, unconstitutionally invades the states’ power to determine eligibility and maintain rolls of registered voters.   

• The Executive Order’s attempt to charge the states and USPS with compiling mail voter eligibility lists, and its prohibition on USPS transmitting mail ballots from voters not on those lists, are unconstitutional and run headlong into states’ authority to regulate elections and Congress’s power to regulate USPS. 

• The Executive Order threatens serious injury to the coalition states, including harms to the states’ sovereign powers to administer their elections, fiscal injuries from states being forced to administer elections under the federal government’s new procedures, legal jeopardy to states and their elections officials from the Executive Order’s directives to investigate and prosecute those who issue ballots to individuals who do not appear on the federal government’s lists, and harms to states’ reputations and public trust. 

A hearing on the coalitions’ motion, as well as the Administration’s response, is scheduled for Tuesday, June 2, 2026 at 10:00 AM ET. 

Joining AG Campbell in filing this motion, which she co-led with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, and Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, were the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

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