Defending Civic Engagement Groups Against Restrictions on Voter Registration at Naturalization Ceremonies (League of Women Voters of the United States et al. v. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services et al.)

On August 29, 2025, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) abruptly announced that it would no longer allow third-party nonpartisan, nongovernmental organizations to assist new citizens in registering to vote after administrative naturalization ceremonies. The new policy allows only state or local election officials, or USCIS officers as a fallback, to provide voter registration services after these ceremonies.  

Within months, USCIS’s restrictive policy forced the League of Women Voters (LWV or the League) and state and local Leagues across the country to cancel planned voter registration activities at administrative naturalization ceremonies, where League members and volunteers expected to help roughly 10,000 individuals register to vote.  

USCIS’s policy is burdening the League’s effective voter registration and engagement work and, in turn, reducing voter registration access for thousands of new American citizens.

CLC represents the national League of Women Voters, LWV Colorado, LWV New Jersey, and three local Leagues, LWV of Saratoga County, LWV of the Charleston Area, and LWV of Milwaukee in challenging the new USCIS policy, arguing it violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The First Amendment protects the right to political speech and participation in the political process for both individuals and organizations. USCIS’s new policy is in direct violation of the First Amendment because it is an attack on both of these constitutionally protected rights.  

Additionally, the Administrative Procedure Act requires federal agencies, including USCIS, to engage in a defined process before enacting new rules and prohibits agencies from enacting rules that are “arbitrary and capricious.” USCIS did not engage in the required process before enactment, and its new policy inflicts unreasonable and unnecessary restrictions on civic engagement groups like the League. 

The Impact  

The League of Women Voters and its state and local affiliates around the country have provided voter registration and education services at naturalization ceremonies across the country since long before USCIS’s inception in 2003.

For decades, Leagues nationwide have served as reliable, nonpartisan resources helping new citizens access the ballot box. This is especially true in areas where state or local election officials lack the capacity to attend administrative naturalization ceremonies to provide voter registration services themselves.

At administrative naturalization ceremonies, League members and volunteers have helped hundreds of thousands of new citizens register to vote, ensuring that new Americans are not only welcomed as citizens but empowered to participate in our democracy.

In 2024 alone, state and local Leagues across the country held 2,789 events at or near naturalization ceremonies, with members and volunteers assisting a total of 122,141 newly naturalized citizens — roughly 8 percent of all new citizens that year — in registering to vote.

But USCIS’s restrictive new policy prohibits the League, and other civic engagement groups, from helping new citizens register to vote after administrative naturalization ceremonies.  

The policy will make it harder for new citizens to register to vote, denying access at the outset to one of the most precious rights accompanying their new American citizenship.  

Our democracy is strongest when every voter can participate easily and without barriers. Nonpartisan civic engagement groups fill a critical public need by facilitating that participation. These civic-minded organizations and their members and volunteers who help new Americans register to vote should be supported and celebrated, not targeted and punished.