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Donald Trump likes to difficulty government orders that haven’t any authorized authority. The president has by no means understood the distinction between government orders and legal guidelines and that was by no means made extra clear by Trump’s newest government order that requires proof of citizenship to make use of the federal registration kind, insists that no ballots might be counted after election day, and threatens states that don’t comply together with his order with a lack of federal funds.
Essentially the most absurd a part of the order is in part 7 the place Trump claims to have enforcement powers:
To realize full compliance with the Federal legal guidelines that set the uniform day for appointing Presidential electors and electing members of Congress:
(a) The Lawyer Common shall take all crucial motion to implement 2 U.S.C. 7 and three U.S.C. 1 in opposition to States that violate these provisions by together with absentee or mail-in ballots obtained after Election Day within the last tabulation of votes for the appointment of Presidential electors and the election of members of the US Senate and Home of Representatives.
(b) Per 52 U.S.C. 21001(b) and different relevant regulation, the Election Help Fee shall situation any obtainable funding to a State on that State’s compliance with the requirement in 52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(6) that every State undertake uniform and nondiscriminatory requirements inside that State that outline what constitutes a vote and what might be counted as a vote, together with that, as prescribed in 2 U.S.C. 7 and three U.S.C. 1, there be a uniform and nondiscriminatory poll receipt deadline of Election Day for all strategies of voting, excluding ballots forged in accordance with 52 U.S.C. 20301 et seq., after which no extra votes could also be forged.
Sec. 8. Stopping International Interference and Illegal Use of Federal Funds. The Lawyer Common, in session with the Secretary of the Treasury, shall prioritize enforcement of 52 U.S.C. 30121 and different acceptable legal guidelines to forestall overseas nationals from contributing or donating in United States elections. The Lawyer Common shall likewise prioritize enforcement of 31 U.S.C. 1352, which prohibits lobbying by organizations or entities which have obtained any Federal funds.
As The Guardian put it, “Most of the provisions within the order are more likely to be rapidly challenged and are legally suspect. The US structure explicitly provides states and Congress the authority to set the foundations for election and doesn’t authorize the president to take action.”
That may be a very restrained approach of claiming that this order is a giant pile of nonsense.
