The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is challenging President Trump’s voter fraud commission.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, the ALCU says the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity violated federal public access requirements by holding its first meeting in private, without public notice.
Trump formed the 15-member commission with an executive order in May to investigate his claims of voter fraud in last year’s presidential election. The group is expected to hold its first public meeting on July 19, according to a notice published in the Federal Register last week.
In its complaint, the ACLU argues that the commission has violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires all advisory committee meetings to be open to the public and timely noticed in the Federal Register.
As many as 44 states and the District have so far refused to turn over the documents, and regulatory experts told The Hill that they believed the commission may have violated the law by not first running its request through a federal office that handles information requests for the government.
Kobach, however, has claimed that only 14 states and the District of Columbia had refused the commission's request.
The Federal Advisory Committee Act also requires the membership of the advisory committee to be fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented, the suit says, and ensures that “appropriate provisions” be made “to assure that the advice and recommendations of the advisory committee will not be inappropriately influenced by the appointing authority or by any special interest, but will instead be the result of the advisory committee’s independent judgment.
The ACLU said the commission is stacked with individuals who have endorsed the President’s unproven claims of voter fraud and provisions have not been made to insulate the commission’s advice and recommendations from Trump’s influence.
The group is asking the court to require all commission meetings made public, as well as all “records, reports, transcripts, minutes, appendixes, working papers, drafts, studies, agenda, or other documents.”
ACLU has also asked the court to order require the commission membership to be fairly balanced force Trump to add provision to his order to ensure commission members act independently.