Court temporarily blocks ban on voter registration groups at citizenship ceremonies
A judge found that the Trump administration’s ban likely violated free speech rights and federal law.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Trump administration policy that barred the League of Women Voters and other civic groups from registering new citizens to vote at administrative naturalization ceremonies.
Adam Abelson, a United States District Court for the District of Maryland, ruled Monday that the groups are likely to succeed on claims that the ban violated the First Amendment and federal administrative law. His order restores a previous policy allowing qualified, nonpartisan organizations to offer voter registration services after citizenship ceremonies while the lawsuit continues.
The League of Women Voters of the United States sued in November along with its New Jersey chapter and local chapters serving Burlington County, the Greater Princeton area, and the Montclair area. The National Council of Jewish Women’s Greater New Orleans chapter filed a separate case that was later consolidated with the League’s lawsuit.
For decades, civic groups helped newly naturalized citizens complete voter registration forms after ceremonies conducted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
In August 2025, immigration officials changed the policy without a public comment period, allowing only state and local election officials to provide voter registration services at administrative ceremonies. Federal officials cited concerns about administrative burdens, consistency, and whether participating groups were nonpartisan. They also argued that online voter registration reduced the need for outside assistance.
Abelson found that voter registration assistance is protected expressive activity and that the government had not adequately justified its abrupt reversal of the longstanding policy.
“The Court is unconvinced that requiring the government to apply the same policy it has been applying for decades and has only recently changed would cause any significant disruption or confusion,” Abelson wrote.
New Jersey League volunteers attended 194 naturalization ceremonies and registered 2,583 new citizens to vote in 2024, according to the court’s opinion. The federal ban forced state and local chapters to cancel hundreds of planned registration events, the League said.
Abelson found that the groups would suffer irreparable harm if the policy remained in place because missed ceremonies cannot be recreated later.
“Plaintiffs cannot go back in time to provide voter assistance services to the new citizens who did not receive those services while the Ban was in place,” he wrote.
The judge reinstated the federal government’s 2017 policy while the case proceeds and declined the administration’s request to delay his ruling during a potential appeal.
Krystal Knapp is the founder, executive director, and publisher of The Jersey Vindicator and the founder of Planet Princeton. She has more than two decades of experience reporting in New Jersey, including 10 years at The Trenton Times, where she was the newsroom’s public records and computer-assisted reporting expert. Her work has been recognized by the New Jersey Press Association and the Center for Cooperative Media. You can reach her at Krystal AT jerseyvindicator.org.