(The Center Square) – Nine states have filed a lawsuit this week to stop President Joe Biden's executive order concerning federal workers and voter registration.
The states say that the federal bureaucracy is inserting itself into state electoral systems and the voter registration process without the scrutiny of a public comment period.
Mississippi, Montana, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas on Tuesday to halt the implementation of the March 7, 2021, executive order .
Biden's order required federal agencies to develop strategies to expand voter registration efforts and to submit plans to the administration within 200 days.
The complaint says the order would "convert the federal bureaucracy into a voter registration organization and to turn every interaction between a federal bureaucrat and a member of the public into a voter registration pitch.
"That exceeds any authority executive entities have under federal law, violates the Constitution, threatens states' attempt to regulate voter registration, and thus ultimately undermines the voter registration systems set up by the states," the complaint says.
The eight states also say the order would have consequences for state elections by turning the "federal bureaucracy into a voter-registration outfit to register voters for state and local elections as well as federal elections."
The complaint says the plans of agencies are secret and are not being put through a public notice and comment process. The U.S. Department of Justice has asserted executive privilege in denying several public records requests by the Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountability, which took the federal government to court.
"That bald attempt to shield agency action from public scrutiny is the best evidence of their unlawfulness, and is, itself, unlawful," the complaint reads.
"This executive order is a prime example as to why the Biden-Harris administration has been such a disaster,” said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves in a release. "They're focused on everything except doing their job, and Americans are paying the price. Federal agencies should be prioritizing their core duties, not acting as an extension of the Democratic National Committee.
"It really goes to show just how far the Biden-Harris administration will go to expand their power, and it's why Mississippi will continue pushing back when they violate the law."
"From the day this unlawful Executive Order (EO 14019) was signed, my team and I had hoped it was another Biden administration word salad with no action," Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson said in a release. "Unfortunately, that was not the case. In 2022, several secretaries of state and I sent a letter to the administration asking them to stand down. Our office has since dug in to study the EO's implementation and sent FOIA requests to ensure we had enough facts to file suit ending this absurd EO.
"Thankfully, this day has come! We look forward to continuing to push as hard as we can to stop the use of taxpayer dollars for illicit means."
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability sent a letter on May 13 to Shalanda Young, the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, asking for the strategic plans submitted to the White House.
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