Amicus Brief in Support of a Preliminary Injunction Against Executive Order 14399

The Society for the Rule of Law has filed an amicus brief with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in support of plaintiffs asking for a preliminary injunction against the Trump Administration’s Executive Order 14399- an Order that attempts to use the United States Postal Service to collect lists of voters using mail-in or absentee ballots.

The brief argues that the United States Postal Service has no statutory authority to perform this role and that the federal government has no legal authority to collect or administer voter lists. Interpreting federal statutes otherwise would violate the major questions doctrine- the presumption that Congress would not delegate politically significant decisions to federal agencies, unless Congress explicitly empowers a federal agency with that authority. Creating and administering voter lists is a politically significant task that the major questions doctrine would address.

Nothing could fit the major questions doctrine better than federal statutory interpretation of an election issue. That is because federal elections control who exercises federal legislative and federal executive power… Indeed, James Madison explained in Federalist No. 39 that it was elections that made our federal government under the Constitution a republic. Madison further explained in Federalist no. 51 that, “[a] dependence on the people” through elections “is, no doubt, the primary control on the government.” It is through elections that “here, We the People rule.” Chiafalo v. Washington, 591 U.S. 578, 597 (2020).

Read the full brief here. For press inquiries, please contact [email protected].

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