Attorney General Ellison moves to block implementation of Trump’s unlawful elections order

Joins coalition of 19 attorneys general in moving for preliminary injunction in lawsuit they filed in early April

May 5, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison today joined a coalition of 19 attorneys general in filing a motion for a preliminary injunction to block the Trump Administration from implementing its unconstitutional, antidemocratic, and un-American Executive Order to impose sweeping voting restrictions across the country. Today’s move to block the implementation of the Order is part of the lawsuit that Attorney General Ellison and the coalition filed on April 3 challenging the Executive Order.

"If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times: elections in Minnesota are already fair and secure,” said Minnesota Attorney General Ellison. “I’m filing today to block this illegal and unconstitutional order because it is nothing less than a full-frontal assault on our freedom to vote, and Minnesota’s nation-leading elections system will suffer irreparable harm if we are forced to comply with it. Neither this president nor any president gets to personally hijack our elections system to carry out grudges and exact political retribution. I will not let anyone abuse their office to make it harder for Minnesotans to register to vote and participate in our democracy.”

Among other things, the Executive Order attempts to conscript state election officials in the President’s campaign to impose documentary proof of citizenship requirements for voter registration, usurp state election laws, and withhold various streams of federal funding to the states if they fail to comply. The coalition’s lawsuit underscores that the power to regulate elections rests exclusively with the states and Congress, not the President.

Since Attorney General Ellison and the coalition filed the lawsuit, however, the Trump Administration has begun taking steps to implement the Executive Order. In their motion today for a preliminary injunction, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition argue a preliminary injunction is warranted on the grounds that they are likely to win on the merits of their lawsuit, including on their claims that the Executive Order violates the constitutional separation of powers, unconstitutionally commandeers state resources and invades states’ constitutional powers and sovereignty, is contrary to the National Voter Registration Act and the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, and unconstitutionally imposes extra-statutory conditions on congressional appropriated funding. They further argue that Minnesota and their states have unique and profound interests at stake in the litigation, and that their states will suffer irreparable harms without court-ordered relief. They ask the court to block various federal defendants from enforcing the Order.

In filing today’s motion for a preliminary injunction, Attorney General Ellison joins the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.