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The Department of Justice’s Civil Division is sabotaging the president’s efforts to keep foreign citizens from interfering in American elections. Criminal lawyers at the Department of Justice recently charged 16 aliens in seven states for illegally registering and voting in American elections. Yet inexplicably at almost the same time, the Civil Division denied that states have the constitutional right to verify citizenship status and eligibility of registered voters in its response to a lawsuit filed by Louisiana.
President Donald Trump and his administration have fought mightily to deter aliens from registering and voting, and to prosecute those who do. Despite claims by critics, the evidence is that there are thousands of aliens registered (and voting) all over the country.
To end that, Trump has made passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which would require proof-of-citizenship to register to vote, a priority. Unfortunately, it is stuck in the Senate. His Department of Homeland Security lifted the bureaucratic red tape the Biden administration installed to prevent states from protecting their elections by using DHS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database to verify the citizenship of individuals on their voter registration lists, even though federal law gives states access to that database.
It is, of course, a federal felony for an alien to register or vote, and both Attorney General Todd Blanche and former Attorney General Pam Bondi made it a priority to criminally prosecute aliens who break federal law, something neither the Obama nor Biden Justice Departments had any interest in doing.
So, amid all this, what has the Civil Division done? It is a long story, but in essence, it is this: in 2004, Arizona voters approved the first law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. The usual left-wing suspects sued, and in 2013, in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council, the Supreme Court confirmed that under the qualifications clauses of the Constitution, states have the authority to determine the qualifications (and thus eligibility) of voters in federal elections within their states.
However, while states could require proof of citizenship if applicants used the state’s own voter registration form, the court said they couldn’t require such proof from applicants using the federal voter registration form unless the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, an independent federal agency, approved that requirement.
Attorney General Todd Blanche listens as President Donald Trump speaks at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
" data-large-file="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26226710568159.jpg?w=696" src="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26226710568159.jpg?w=696" alt="Attorney General Todd Blanche" class="wp-image-4695810" srcset="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26226710568159.jpg 1024w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26226710568159.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26226710568159.jpg?resize=768,513 768w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26226710568159.jpg?resize=150,100 150w, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AP26226710568159.jpg?resize=696,465 696w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px">
Attorney General Todd Blanche listens as President Donald Trump speaks at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The federal voter registration form regulated by the EAC was created by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to govern registration for federal elections. The court said in Inter Tribal that under the NVRA, states could “request that the EAC alter the Federal Form to include information the State deems necessary to determine eligibility” — such as citizenship evidence — and could sue the agency if it refused to do so. Arizona asked the EAC for approval in 2005, but that request wasn’t approved after a 2-to-2 vote by the four EAC commissioners (two Democrats and two Republicans) failed to reach the three votes necessary to approve the change.
You can guess how they voted. Arizona never sued.
In 2024, Louisiana passed a similar requirement to Arizona, except that Louisiana’s law directs state election officials to first use available state and federal databases to verify citizenship before asking someone registering to vote to provide documentary proof. In other words, proof of citizenship isn’t required unless the state can’t verify citizenship through other means.
Louisiana asked the EAC to approve new instructions about this requirement for anyone using the federal form to register to vote in the state. It submitted evidence supporting the requirement, which included several hundred aliens found on the voter rolls, although not before casting several hundred votes. Between 2021 and 2024, 363 Louisiana elections were decided by fewer than 30 votes, 180 of which were decided by fewer than 15.
However, the EAC on multiple occasions failed to approve Louisiana’s request in — you guessed it — split votes along party lines every time. Although he never said so publicly, I suspect that was the main reason why, after the 2026 Trump v. Slaughter decision reconfirmed a president’s constitutional authority to terminate the heads of federal agencies, Trump fired the two Democrat commissioners of the EAC, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland.
Louisiana recently filed suit against the EAC, claiming that the agency’s refusal to approve the state’s instructions about proof of citizenship was “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act. Louisiana also argues that interpreting the NVRA to give a federal agency the power to interfere with, and prevent its verification of, the eligibility of a potential voter, including citizenship, is an unlawful intrusion into the constitutional authority of states to determine the qualifications of voters.
Louisiana is right on all counts. Yet when the Civil Division of the Justice Department filed its answer on August 17, instead of conceding that Louisiana was correct, the Division said that none of the state’s “constitutional, statutory, or other rights were violated.” It told the federal court that Louisiana was not entitled to “any relief” and that the case should be dismissed.
In other words, DOJ took the position that Louisiana should not be able to implement its proof-of-citizenship requirement. Unbelievable.
DOJ conceding that Louisiana is correct would open up the ability of states to enforce citizenship verification requirements for those registering to vote using the federal voter registration form. The EAC’s obstinance on the federal form has been the loophole that left-wing groups have driven a truck through to register individuals with no proof they are actually U.S. citizens.
The Justice Department is a very large operation, so I doubt Todd Blanche has any idea that his Civil Division has taken action that sabotages the good work being done by his criminal lawyers and by the Department of Homeland Security. It is an action that inhibits states from implementing their own state versions of the federal SAVE Act the president supports.
TRUMP SAYS HE WILL PROBABLY LIFT THE MEDIA BAN IF JUDGE RULES AGAINST HIM
This abysmal mistake needs to be corrected as soon as possible.
Hans von Spakovsky is a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom and former Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
