On April 3, 2025, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford co-led a coalition of 19 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against President Donald J. Trump, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the federal Election Assistance Commission, and other Trump administration officials over Executive Order No. 14248 (the Elections Executive Order), an unconstitutional, antidemocratic, and un-American attempt to impose sweeping voting restrictions across the country. Among other things, the Elections Executive Order attempts to conscript state election officials in the president’s efforts to impose documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements when Americans register to vote. It also seeks to upend common-sense, well-established state procedures for counting ballots — procedures that make it easier for peoples’ voices to be heard while preserving election security.

In their lawsuit, the attorneys general assert that provisions of the Elections Executive Order will cause imminent and irreparable harm to the states if they are not blocked. State attorneys general argued that the U.S. Constitution’s election clause grants primary authority over election administration to the states, while also allowing Congress to regulate certain activity—leaving no role at all for the executive branch to govern elections. The executive order is thus an unconstitutional power grab, seeking to amend election law by fiat rather than by legislative process at the state and federal level.

On June 13, 2025, a district court judge issued an injunction blocking implementation of the provisions requiring documentary proof of citizenship, as well as those that would prohibit states from counting ballots received after election day. The injunction was modified on July 18, 2025, narrowing one provision that blocked federal offices from requesting citizenship data to apply only in the plaintiff states. 

Day after day, we continue to witness President Trump’s utter disdain for the rule of law. Let me remind him: He is not a king. When he took office, he swore to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’ He also has a constitutional obligation to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed,’ and that doesn’t involve rewriting them however he sees fit. My fellow attorneys general and I are taking him to court because this Executive Order is nothing but a blatantly illegal power grab and an attempt to disenfranchise voters. Neither the Constitution nor Congress authorize the President’s attempted voting restrictions. We will not be bullied by him. We will fight like hell in court to stop him. Attorney General Rob Bonta