by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. - attorney and law professor emeritus - providing you with 100% facts and truth in plain English about what's going on with this administration and the law
Yesterday afternoon Judge Denise Casper of the Federal District Court of Massachusetts affirmed the permanent injunction against the implementation of Trump’s SAVE-like executive order, "Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections".
I have previously written about this case, and in fact Judge Casper issued a permanent injunction in this case last month (which I wrote about for you) so some of this may sound familiar.
Basically, in addition to trying to get the SAVE Act passed, Trump had issued this executive order that was, in effect, identical to the SAVE Act. And that executive order is what has been being challenged in this case.
Among other things, the EO had the same voter ID requirements, and the same prohibition against mail-in ballots that were mailed by Election Day but not received until after Election Day being counted.
19 states banded together and sued over the executive order.
Now, when you read this order (and I'm including the original opinion and order again as well), you will come across the terms "ballot receipt states" and "non-ballot receipt states", the Plaintiffs represent a mix of both.
"Ballot-receipt states" refers to states which allow ballots to be counted after Election Day so long as they are postmarked *by* Election Day.
"Non-ballet receipt states" are those for which the ballots must be *in the hands of election workers* by Election Day. Those state plaintiffs are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin.
The ballot receipt states involved in this lawsuit are California, Nevada, Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Rhode Island.
Now, as I said, the Court had already smacked Trump over this and issued an injunction, on June 24th.
Then on June 29th the Supreme Court issued their decision, also protecting a state's right to count mail-in ballots after Election Day.
And then yesterday, to add insult to injury, the Massachusetts District Court came out with a 4-page order (included for Notes from the Front members) allowing various requests for summary judgement as to some parts of the executive order, and denying other requests for summary judgement as to parts of the executive order, most primarily based on whether the party in question was a ballot state or a non-ballot state (for example if the party was non-ballot state than parts of the executive order didn't apply to them, and so they didn't have an actual controversy). It's really convoluted unless you have the sections of the EO memorized, but fortunately you don't have to worry about that. Because the main point for you is this:
The Court not only kept the injunction in place, but declared the meat of that executive order *unconstitutional*. And much of the rest violative of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA).
And now everybody and their cat are prohibited from requiring documentary proof of citizenship in order to vote in Federal elections.
And *that* is how we save our country from being SAVEd.
Notes from the Front members: yesterday's short order and the longer main opinion and order from the 24th are both below for you.
If you're not a Notes from the Front member yet, please consider joining me and supporting my reporting (and my coffee habit)! It's just $5 a month. You can join here and get immediate access to all of the documents, if you want them:
https://annepmitchell.substack.com/subscribe
New by popular demand: Many of you have asked how you can support my work without joining Substack (thank you for asking! ❤️), here's how: https://www.annepmitchell.com/buy-anne-a-coffee/
P.S. If you made it through to the bottom please leave a comment that includes “meow” in a sentence. 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 just why everyone is meowing. ;~)