Judges GUT THESE Core Pieces of Trump’s ORDER

Two different federal judges just blocked core pieces of Donald Trump’s latest election order, raising fresh questions about who really runs America’s elections — voters and states, or the federal “experts” and databases that many see as part of the deep state.

Story Snapshot

Trump’s Executive Order 14399 tried to lock mail-in voting and voter rolls behind a national citizenship database and strict federal rules.^[3]^[6]
Two federal courts stepped in, blocking bulk use of federal immigration databases and striking down funding threats against states that refused to comply.^[10]^[12]
Judges said Trump overstepped his constitutional power by trying to rewrite election rules that belong to Congress and the states.^[2]^[7]^[12]
Both conservatives and liberals now see a system where courts, agencies, and politicians fight for control while ordinary voters worry about fraud and disenfranchisement.^[1]^[13]

What Trump’s Election Order Tried to Do

Executive Order 14399, signed on March 31, 2026, says only United States citizens can vote in federal elections and orders the government to verify that fact.^[1]^[6] The order tells the Department of Homeland Security to build a “State Citizenship List” using federal records, then send each state a list of people the government believes are citizens and “eligible to vote” under state law.^[3]^[5] It also pushes the United States Postal Service to mail absentee and mail-in ballots only to people on approved state and federal lists, locking ballot access behind these databases.^[3]^[6]^[14]

The order goes further by directing the Attorney General to prioritize criminal cases against state and local officials who issue federal ballots to people the federal government views as ineligible.^[3]^[5]^[14] It cites several federal criminal and voting laws as a legal basis, and warns that federal funds can be withheld from states and localities that do not comply.^[3]^[6] Supporters say these steps are needed to stop illegal voting and clean up bloated rolls; critics argue it builds a national voter file that can be misused and weaponizes funding to force state obedience.^[2]^[7]^[13]

How the Courts Kneecapped the Plan

Trump’s broader election agenda did not start with this order. A 2025 executive order, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” already tried to force the Election Assistance Commission to demand passports or proof of citizenship on the national registration form and to tie federal money to stricter mail ballot rules.^[9]^[13] Federal courts struck key parts of that earlier order, finding that the president cannot unilaterally change election procedures that the Constitution reserves for Congress and the states.^[2]^[7]^[10]

Now, two new rulings have gone after the machinery behind Trump’s latest push.^[10]^[11]^[12] One judge blocked changes to the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database and a planned centralized pool of Social Security and citizenship data, ruling that bulk use for voter screening violated the Privacy Act and other laws because the administration never gave proper notice or clear limits on how personal data would be used.^[10] Another judge said the president has “no power” to impose new federal election requirements on states or to threaten the Election Assistance Commission’s grants as punishment, calling the funding threats unconstitutional pressure on state governments.^[2]^[12]

Deep Flaws in the Citizenship Database Strategy

Evidence presented to the courts showed why many election officials on both sides worry about using large federal databases to police voter rolls. In one Texas county, about 75 people were flagged by immigration data as possible non-citizen voters, but most turned out to be naturalized citizens or false matches based on names, not real status.^[10] Judges highlighted how the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program often fails to update records when someone becomes a citizen, which can turn law-abiding voters into suspects.

@grok is the following factual as of June 24, 2026?

Proponents of the Act argue it addresses ongoing risks and inconsistencies in the current decentralized system, independent of any single election.Critics argue that the timing, framing, and emphasis in official messaging tie…

— Trump is Scum (@TrumpIsScum2025) June 24, 2026

Legal and policy groups warned that broad data-sharing orders, combined with subpoenas to states for full voter files, risk exposing sensitive personal information while delivering shaky results.^[1]^[7]^[13] When federal agencies mislabel citizens, states face pressure to purge legitimate voters to avoid possible lawsuits or funding cuts. For many Americans, this looks less like “integrity” and more like a distant bureaucracy deciding who gets to vote, deepening fears that the system serves the powerful, not the people.

A System Neither Side Fully Trusts

For conservatives who believe past elections were too loose, these rulings feel like more proof that judges and career officials will block any serious effort to demand proof of citizenship or tighten mail-in voting.^[2]^[10] For liberals who fear voter suppression, the same rulings are a rare win against a White House they see as trying to narrow the electorate and scare local officials with criminal charges.^[7]^[11] Both sides, however, see the same basic picture: Washington power players use executive orders, lawsuits, and databases to fight for control while everyday citizens worry about both fraud and being wrongly kicked off the rolls.

Since the Help America Vote Act passed in 2002, courts have repeatedly rejected attempts by presidents of both parties to overhaul election rules by executive order alone.^[1]^[7] Each time, judges have reminded the White House that election “time, place, and manner” rules belong to Congress and the states. That pattern suggests Trump’s election integrity agenda, at least in its current form, faces steep odds unless lawmakers pass new laws that clearly define how citizenship can be verified without turning flawed federal databases into gatekeepers of the American Dream.