Attorney General Dan Rayfield and a group of 23 other attorneys general, along with the Governor of Pennsylvania, filed a motion for summary judgment on Apr. 24 to permanently block President Trump’s executive order that restricts mail voting.
The motion asks a federal court to stop enforcement of the order, which limits voter eligibility and mail voting to lists pre-approved by the federal government. The coalition argues that states have primary authority over election regulation, not the President.
“The U.S. Postal Service delivers the mail,” said Attorney General Rayfield. “President Trump wants to turn letter carriers into election gatekeepers – and that’s not a role the Postal Service was built for, not a power the federal government has, and not something Oregon will accept. This is really about a years-long campaign to manufacture doubt about elections that Trump didn’t like.”
Earlier in April, Rayfield joined this same coalition in filing suit against Executive Order No. 14399, titled Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections. The lawsuit claims that this order is unconstitutional and exceeds presidential authority.
According to their legal arguments, the executive order attempts to dictate who can vote by requiring states to use federally approved voter lists for mail ballots and prohibits USPS from transmitting ballots from voters not on those lists. The coalition says these measures infringe upon state powers over voter rolls and Congress’s authority over both elections and postal services.
The attorneys general also argue that enforcing this order would harm states’ ability to manage their own elections, impose new fiscal burdens due to required procedural changes, expose state officials to legal risk if they issue ballots deemed improper under federal rules, and damage public trust in elections.
The Trump Administration must file its response by May 7; a hearing is set for June 2 at 7:00 AM Pacific Time/10:00 AM Eastern Time before the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts.
