In turnaround, judge who blocked Trump’s last anti-voting order won’t hear challenge to new one
U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers got their way Wednesday when a federal judge ordered that challenges to President Donald Trump’s new anti-voting executive order be randomly reassigned — a shift that could make the outcome of the case less predictable.
Earlier this week, the now-consolidated lawsuits by Democrats* and pro-voting groups were steered by a federal court to U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the same Democratic-appointed judge who previously blocked Trump’s last anti-voting order, issued in March 2025.
That raised expectations that the new diktat could quickly face the same fate.
But in a new ruling, the court agreed with DOJ lawyers who had argued that the cases should not have been directed to Kollar-Kotelly in the first place — and must instead follow the normal process where cases are randomly assigned.
The dispute centers on how the cases were initially assigned.
When the lawsuits were filed, the plaintiffs argued they were closely connected to the earlier case challenging the March 2025 anti-voting order — the one where Kollar-Kotelly ruled Trump has no authority to control election rules.
That earlier case blocked a sweeping executive order that tried to impose new requirements on voter registration.
But Kollar-Kotelly said the new lawsuits don’t qualify to be treated as the same case.
First, the earlier case is already finished at the trial level and is now being appealed — so it can’t be used to keep new cases with the same judge, she wrote. And second, Trump’s new executive order is different from the last one, even if both target voting.
That means the cases don’t have to stay with the same judge.
The decision is a significant procedural turn in a high-stakes fight over the anti-voting order. Still, several courts have already ruled that the Constitution gives control over elections to states and Congress — not the president.
Trump’s latest order would create a federal database to verify voters’ citizenship and impose new rules on mail-in voting — changes voting rights groups warn could make it harder for eligible Americans to vote.
*Democratic plaintiffs in this case are represented by the Elias Law Group (ELG). ELG Chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.
