Attorney General Lynn Fitch, Governor Tate Reeves,and Secretary of State Michael Watson filed a complaint on behalf of the Stateof Mississippi challenging an illegal Executive Order directing an all-of-government voter registration effort by federal agencies and led by the WhiteHouse. “We fully support encouraging voter registration and promoting an engagedelectorate,” said Attorney General Lynn Fitch.“But putting the full weightof the Oval Office behind an effort first developed by partisan activist groupsand then hiding the agency activities from public scrutiny goes too far. The lawdoes not allow it. Mississippi will not stand for it. The people deserve answers,and we demand accountability here with this suit.”“This executive order is a prime example as to why the Biden-Harrisadministration has been such a disaster” said Governor Tate Reeves.“They’re focused on everything except doing their job, and Americans arepaying the price. Federal agencies should be prioritizing their core duties, notacting as an extension of the Democratic National Committee. It really goes toshow just how far the Biden-Harris administration will go to expand theirpower, and it’s why Mississippi will continue pushing back when they violatethe law."
“From the day this unlawful Executive Order (EO 14019) was signed, my teamand I had hoped it was another Biden Administration word salad with noaction. Unfortunately, that was not the case. In 2022, several Secretaries ofState and I sent a letter to the Administration asking them to stand down. Ouroffice has since dug in to study the EO’s implementation and sent FOIArequests 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 hardas we can to stop the use of taxpayer dollars for illicit means,” said Secretaryof State Michael Watson.
Executive Order 14019 mobilized federal agencies to develop strategies toexpand voter registration efforts and to submit their strategic plans to theWhite House within 200 days. Those plans, however, did not go through noticeand comment or any of the safeguards under the Administrative Procedure Act(APA) that ensure transparency and accountability. In fact, efforts by watchdog organizations and others to obtain copies of thoseplans were stonewalled, with the U.S. Department of Justice even assertingthat they should be “properly withheld ... in [their] entirety pursuant to thepresidential communications privilege,” in a case brought in federal court inFlorida by the Foundation for Government Accountability. Secretary Watson,who filed Freedom of Information Act requests with several federal agencies,was told on a call between Secretaries of State and the White House that thoseplans were never intended to be public.
The complaint filed today by Mississippi and 8 other States notes, “the partisaninfection is so severe as to render EO 14019, and the agency decisionsstemming from it, the product of pretext. That is, rather than ensure ‘thatregistering to vote and the act of voting be made simple and easy for all thoseeligible to do so,’ or promoting or defending ‘the right to vote for all Americanswho are legally entitled to participate in elections,’ ... the purpose is to promoteleft-wing politicians and policies at elections. If there are ‘contrived reasons’instead of ‘genuine justifications for important decisions,’ agency action mustbe set aside.” (citing Dep’t of Commerce v. New York, 588 U.S. 752, 785(2019)).
Original source can be found here.