DHS ignored court by continuing work on voter citizenship lists without notice, Democrats allege

The Trump administration violated a court order when it failed to provide updates on its efforts to compile lists of voting-age citizens in each state, Democrats* said in a court filing. 

The so-called “State Citizenship Lists” are part of President Donald Trump’s anti-mail voting executive order. But Democrats suing to block those efforts said on several occasions they have only learned what steps the Department of Homeland Security was taking through public reporting after the fact.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, other Democratic organizations and Senate and House Democratic leaders are asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to force Homeland Security to disclose what steps it is taking to fulfill Trump’s demand that suspected non-citizens be purged from voter rolls.

The judge overseeing the case had instructed Homeland Security to provide prompt notice of any changes in its efforts to implement Trump’s order.

Democrats point to a whistleblower account released last week that alleged DHS agents have been ordered to unlawfully access state voting records by misrepresenting their identities to carry out the department’s escalating elections-related probes as an example of the steps that should have been proactively disclosed to the court.

“Throughout this litigation, Defendants have repeatedly shirked the Court’s instruction, and now in their response they contend there was no obligation whatsoever,” they write. “This ignores the Court’s clear expectation, and Defendants’ evasive actions have forced Plaintiffs to litigate this extremely important matter on extremely tight timelines and with incomplete information.”

Democrats immediately challenged Trump’s executive order after he signed it in March. 

Earlier this month, they were successful in blocking Section 3 of the order, which directed the U.S. Postal Service to create a new rule on mail ballots, from going into effect for the midterms. 

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, issued a preliminary injunction against the rule on Sept. 13. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a separate challenge, also blocked the Postal Service action for this fall’s elections.

However, no court order bars DHS from moving to advance Section 2 of Trump’s order, which Democrats and other groups have called an unprecedented and unlawful attempt to centralize Americans’ personal data.

“This is not an ordinary civil case. It is a challenge to an Executive Order that attempts to remake American elections by executive fiat, as well as actions to implement the Order that—if left unchecked—will have widespread and pernicious consequences for American democracy, all while voting is ongoing for the 2026 general elections,” Democrats say.

“This Court recognized that reality in its repeated and unambiguous instruction that Defendants should promptly provide notice of any material changes,” they add. “The Court should now enforce those directives and require Defendants to provide a complete disclosure of the status of their implementation of Section 2(a).”

*The Elias Law Group (ELG) represents the plaintiffs in this case. ELG Firm Chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.