WOOT!! FIRST LAWSUIT OVER TRUMP’S ILLEGAL EXECUTIVE ORDER ABOUT MAIL-IN VOTING IS FILED
Well, that escalated quickly. Yesterday I told you about Trump’s illegal executive order trying to influence mail-in voting, and didn’t we all say that we expected a lawsuit to be filed soon? Well, soon is here!
Senator Charles Schumer, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, and several Democratic entities, including the DNC, filed the first salvo yesterday afternoon, suing Trump, Lutnick, and a bunch of other individuals along with the DOJ, the Post Office, the Department of Commerce, and several other agencies. (And, oh yeah, Bondi – yesterday a defendant, today an unemployed pariah.) And kudos to colleague Marc Elias (of Democracy Docket) whose firm is representing the plaintiffs.
Why all the agencies? Well, if you recall from my article yesterday, and the executive order itself which I included, Trump’s illegal EO proposed pulling the personal data of U.S citizens from those agencies to compile what amounts to “authorized lists of United States citizens who are eligible to vote in federal elections”.
The Complaint, which is included for Notes from the Front members, starts out “President Trump has tried again and again to rewrite election rules for his own perceived partisan advantage. If only he could ban mail voting – a favorite scapegoat for his 2020 electoral defeat – and impose other voting restrictions, he has proclaimed, Republicans will “never lose a race – for 50 years.”
But, the Complaint goes on, “Our Constitution’s Framers anticipated this kind of desire for absolute power. They recognized the menace it would pose to ordered liberty and the ways in which it would corrode self-government like an acid. And so to preserve the People’s own sovereignty, they crafted a system of government to resist that threat. They left most election authority with the States, permitted state regulations to be displaced only upon the agreement of both chambers of Congress, and established an independent judiciary to repel threats to individual rights.”
Then, after setting up the facts behind the case, and introducing the plaintiffs and the defendants, the Complaint takes us on a tour of the history of absentee ballot voting and vote by mail. Did you know that absentee ballots were a thing *during the Revolution*?? It’s true! The Complaint explains that “During the Revolutionary War, some American colonies allowed voting away from usual polling places, often to ensure the military conflict did not disenfranchise eligible voters.”
And during the Civil War “States experimented with absentee voting on an even larger scale to ensure that soldiers away from home could still vote.”
Then “Vermont became the first State to accord absentee voting privileges to civilians,” in 1896!
Starting in 1978 the states started allowing people to request absentee ballots without having to give an excuse; of course California led the way, with other states following suit.
And, they are quick to point out, *Trump himself* not only has voted by mail in the past, but *just* voted by mail last month!
This is a 64-page complaint (again, included for Notes from the Front members) and it is put together *very* well, in mostly plain English, presumably so that Trump (and Bondi when she was still around) could understand its *very* clear language.
I promise you will learn a lot with this complaint. I just learned from footnote 6 that the Post Office is obligated for both the 2026 and 2028 elections to “publicly post guidance documents reflecting the Postal Service’s ‘good faith efforts to prioritize monitoring and timely delivery of Election Mail.’ ” That came from the settling of a 2021 case filed by the NAACP against the Post Office.
The Complaint also repeatedly mentions that Trump can’t get the SAVE Act passed, and while there are legitimate reasons for pointing it out (for example suggesting that his failure to pass the SAVE Act is the reason for him now trying this illegal EO), you have to admit that it’s also a great way to taunt him.
Seriously, read this Complaint and laugh, and laugh, and laugh. They won’t know what hit them.
Notes from the Front members: the Complaint is in your inbox now. Note that I left off the very last page, which was the signature block, because Marc and his associates don’t need their email addresses posted on the Internet.
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https://annepmitchell.substack.com/p/woot-first-lawsuit-over-trumps-illegal
P.S. If you actually read all the way to the bottom please leave a comment that includes the word “bazinga!”. It will show me that my efforts aren’t in vain and that people actually *do* read these things, and it will drive those who just skim crazy wondering why everyone is saying “bazinga!”. ;~)
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