John Yoo predicts ACLU will ‘lose’ fight against Trump’s order requiring proof of citizenship to vote

Former Justice Department official John Yoo forecast Thursday that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) will be unsuccessful in its challenge against President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring proof of citizenship to vote.

ACLU’s Voting Rights Project Director Sophia Lin Lakin said the organization “will see President Trump in court” in response to his Tuesday order, which in part mandates government-issued proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration in every state and conditions federal funding on adherence. Yoo, who worked at the department under George H.W. Bush’s administration, argued on “America Reports” that the ACLU’s stance that Trump’s order will undoubtedly “disproportionately impact historically-excluded communities” will not hold up in court.

WATCH:

“I think this argument from the ACLU is going to lose. These people make the same argument about states imposing voter ID requirements,” Yoo said. “If you require a driver’s license, it’s going to affect some groups over other groups and the Supreme Court almost unanimously rejected that argument. I think the same logic applies here. This is a neutral rule.”

“In fact, you can again say the government’s just trying to enforce federal law that says noncitizens can’t vote,” he continued. “And so an obvious way to do that is say, ‘Prove you’re a citizen.’ It’s not done to hurt one group or another group. It has no discriminatory intent. It’s valid on its face … I think that the courts will eventually agree with the president on that one.”

The U.S. House of Representatives in 2024 passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act , mandating proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections, but it subsequently met its demise in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Trump framed his executive order as a historic step toward election security.

“We believe that this Executive Order is the farthest-reaching executive action taken in the history of the republic to secure our elections,” he wrote on Truth Social Tuesday.

“Free, fair, and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion are fundamental to maintaining our constitutional Republic,” the president further wrote in his executive order. “The right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted and tabulated, without illegal dilution, is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election.”

However, Lakin wrote that voter fraud is a “myth” and that the ACLU “will do everything in [its] power” to fight the order in order to preserve eligible Americans’ participation in elections.

“President Trump’s executive order attempting to require documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration and restrict the acceptance of mail-in ballots received after Election Day, among other measures, is a blatant overreach that threatens to disenfranchise tens of millions of eligible voters,” she wrote.

The “historically-excluded communities” Lakin claimed would be affected are “voters of color, naturalized citizens, people with disabilities, and the elderly.” She said the order advances “unnecessary barriers to the fundamental right to vote.”

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