Can a president control who votes in America?

When the Trump administration barred non-governmental groups from administrative naturalization ceremonies in August of 2025, the League of Women Voters was forced to cancel voter education efforts at 166 planned events — cutting off a pathway to voter registration that new citizens had relied on for decades. It was one front in a broader campaign to reshape the American electorate.

On this episode of Democracy Decoded, host Simone Leeper examines how the administration is using citizenship itself as a tool to suppress voting. Marcia Johnson of the League of Women Voters describes the human cost of shutting down registration at naturalization ceremonies and the chilling effect on new citizens. Campaign Legal Center's Anna Baldwin details the legal fight to restore access, challenge the SAVE Act's documentary proof requirements, and stop faulty voter purges in states like Ohio and Texas. And Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar recounts his state's refusal to hand over sensitive voter information. Together, they raise a question that cuts to the heart of our democracy: What happens when a president tries to choose his voters instead of the other way around — and how far can he go before the system pushes back?

Episode Highlights:

1:07 — What happened when USCIS shut down voter registration at administrative naturalization ceremonies?

3:23 — What does the rule of law mean for every American citizen?

4:48 — How does barring civic groups from administrative naturalization ceremonies harm new citizens' right to vote?

6:17 — Can the president unilaterally end birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment?

8:36 — Would the SAVE Act protect elections or disenfranchise eligible voters?

10:40 — How do state voter purges falsely target naturalized citizens?

13:20 — What does it mean when a president tries to choose his voters?

14:18 — Can the federal government force states to hand over sensitive voter data?

16:42 — Could armed federal agents show up at your polling place this fall?

19:10 — What guardrails are needed for federal election observers at the polls?

23:11 — Does America need structural reform to rebuild the separation of powers?

24:37 — Can the courts stop the government from barring civic groups from administrative naturalization ceremonies?

27:19 — Does American citizenship have membership tiers or is every citizen equal?

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Marcia Johnson is the chief counsel and chief of Activation & Justice for the League of Women Voters. She leads the organization’s advocacy and litigation and mobilization and engagement teams, overseeing the strategic direction of their policy, litigation, programmatic and organizing efforts. Before joining LWVUS in October 2024, she was the co-director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law for 20 years, where she managed the organization’s voting rights advocacy and voter engagement portfolios including building the nationwide nonpartisan Election Protection program. Marcia also oversaw research into the impact of the Voting Rights Act on American democracy including organizing two nationwide commissions to d