Host Simone Leeper is joined by League of Women Voters' Marcia Johnson, Campaign Legal Center's Anna Baldwin, and Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar to trace the Trump administration's multi-front campaign against naturalized and first-generation voters and discuss what happens when a president tries to choose his voters instead of the other way around.
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 document this impact. Marcia also coordinated the Lawyers’ Committee’s international human rights initiatives, including monitoring US compliance with its treaty obligations. Marcia is a nationally recognized leader on voting rights, has testified before Congress, and never turns down an opportunity to advocate for voting rights across all forms of media, national and international. Marcia received her juris doctor from Villanova University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Linguistics from Georgetown University.
Anna Baldwin is a member of CLC's voting rights team working to protect the freedom to vote, litigating cases in state and federal courts, from filing through appeal to the Supreme Court. Prior to joining CLC, Anna spent 14 years in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice prior to joining CLC. In North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP v. McCrory, Anna led briefing and appellate argument for the United States to overturn a North Carolina law that purposefully restricted voting and registration opportunities for Black voters in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Anna was also a member of the trial team that successfully challenged Texas’s racially discriminatory voter ID law. Anna has argued 18 cases before the federal courts of appeal, including four en banc cases. Previously, Anna was an associate in the Washington D.C. office of Jenner & Block LLP, and they clerked for Judge James Robertson on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and for Judge M. Blane Michael on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Secretary of State Francisco “Cisco” Aguilar was elected as Nevada Secretary of State in 2022 and assumed office on January 2, 2023. Prior to being elected, Secretary Aguilar served twelve years as General Counsel for Agassi Graf, the management company for Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf, and the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education. In this role, he was responsible for communications and media, marketing and brand management, strategic partnerships, legal and government affairs. The Secretary also served as Special Counsel to the Chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education, Jim Rogers, and as a lawyer for the parent company of the Las Vegas and Reno NBC affiliates, KSNV Channel 3 and KRNV Channel 4, and 15 other NBC affiliates.
Secretary Aguilar graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and accounting, an MBA and Juris Doctor. At the University of Arizona, he was also elected to represent the more than 35,000 students as Student Body President. Secretary Aguilar is a member of the Nevada, California, and Arizona Bars.
Links:
Challenging the Trump Administration’s Unlawful Voter Data Collection
The Fight to Protect the National Voter Registration Act at the U.S. Supreme Court
How the SAVE Act Threatens the Freedom to Vote
What You Need to Know About the SAVE Act
Protecting the Promise of American Citizenship
Why Birthright Citizenship Is an Essential Part of Our Democracy
Every American Has the Same Freedom to Vote, No Matter Where You're Born
Taking Action Against Presidential Abuses of Power
About CLC:
Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan legal organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. We fight for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process, particularly Americans who have faced political barriers because of race, ethnicity or economic status. Learn more about us.
Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.