Lawsuit Filed to Block Florida ‘Show Your Papers’ Law

A lawsuit was filed to block what voting rights advocates call the Florida “Show Your Papers” law.




Plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the new election law, the Florida SAVE Act (HB 991), unlawful and block Florida officials from enforcing the documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement.

The lawsuit, filed by the League of Women Voters of Florida, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Florida Rising, Common Cause, Hispanic Federation and UnidosUS, seeks to block enforcement of the law before it goes into effect in 2027. Plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, and Advancement Project.

Voting rights advocates filed the federal lawsuit challenging Florida House Bill 991, a new law requiring documentary proof of citizenship, warning that the measure will disenfranchise eligible voters and create unnecessary barriers to the freedom to vote. The law requires prospective voters to have “evidence of citizenship” on file, such as a passport or birth certificate to register to vote or remain on the voter rolls. Thousands of Floridians do not have ready access to these documents, the lawsuit alleges.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed the Florida SAVE Act, and Republicans said that the legislation continues Florida’s efforts to lead the nation in secure, transparent, and efficient elections. The Florida SAVE Act makes major election integrity reforms while enhancing security and enforcement efforts.

Plaintiffs argue that Florida’s additional documentation requirement will make it significantly harder for eligible voters – especially naturalized citizens, low-income voters, married women who have changed their name, voters of color, students, voters with disabilities, transgender people, and seniors – to register and participate in elections.

The complaint argues that the requirement violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution by imposing unlawful burdens on the fundamental right to vote, including restrictive voter registration requirements. Unlike some other documentary proof of-citizenship laws, this one applies retroactively to currently registered voters, making it even likelier that eligible voters will be both wrongly prevented from registering and/or erroneously removed from the rolls.

“Florida voters already confirm their citizenship when they register to vote. Instead of securing elections, HB 991 causes eligible voters to be disenfranchised,” said Jessica Lowe-Minor, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida. “Despite strong opposition from our state’s voting rights coalition, the Governor signed a bill tying the right to vote to the possession of costly documents that many U.S. citizens don’t have easy access to. No eligible Floridian should be pushed out of the voter rolls simply because of red tape.”

“New barriers to voting too often fall hardest on the communities that have long fought to be heard in our democracy,” said Caren Short, director of legal and research at the League of Women Voters of the United States. “Sadly, but unsurprisingly, Florida’s new documentary proof of citizenship law requirement is based on xenophobic lies and disinformation. The legislature’s failure to look out for constituents instead of legislators’ own political interests will harm married women, naturalized citizens, young people, and many other eligible voters who do not have ready access to documents like passports or birth certificates. The League of Women Voters is committed to defending a democracy where every eligible voter has a fair opportunity to make their voice heard.”

The groups said that HB 991 creates barriers to voting by:

• adding new document demands for people registering or updating their registration, including citizenship verification requirements;
• forcing some voters out of the simple online process and into a print-sign-deliver process if the system cannot verify key information through state records;
• making registration depend on DMV records, which can be incomplete, outdated, or mismatched;
• creating an “unverified voter” status that can leave eligible voters casting provisional ballots that will not count unless citizenship is verified;
• increasing the risk of wrongful denial or removal because paperwork problems and database errors can be treated like voter ineligibility;
• raising the cost of participation for voters who must locate, replace, print, sign, or deliver documents to complete registration; this burden is especially heavy for low-income voters, seniors, students, and people with disabilities;
• creating confusion that discourages participation, especially when voters are told they need extra steps to prove what they have already sworn under penalty of law;
• replicating the same paperwork-churn problem seen in Medicaid redeterminations, where eligible people lost coverage for procedural reasons rather than true ineligibility; CMS and KFF have both documented procedural disenrollments tied to renewal and paperwork failures.

Legal groups representing the voting rights advocacy organizations added the following:

“Florida’s new ‘show your papers’ law is a blatant attempt to add unnecessary barriers to the ballot box,” said Jonathan Topaz, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “This law targets Florida’s most vulnerable voters—older Black voters who grew up in the Jim Crow South, naturalized citizens, transgender people, low-income voters, voters with disabilities—all in service of perpetuating the fact-free myth of widespread non-citizen registration and voting. We bring this lawsuit to ensure that Florida cannot block its eligible voters from exercising their fundamental right to vote because of missing or mismatched paperwork.”

“Florida has a long and troubling history of suppressing the right to vote by placing barriers between voters and the ballot box,” said Carrie McNamara, staff attorney at the ACLU of Florida. “Over the past several years, state leaders have systematically rewritten the rules of democracy – from restricting the citizen-led amendment process, to undermining community-based voter registration efforts; from sending formerly incarcerated citizens back to jail because they dared to vote, to delaying special elections and leaving thousands without representation. This anti-voter law is the latest entry in that playbook. It reflects a continued effort to create new barriers between eligible voters and the ballot box, making it harder for people to have their voices heard. Protecting the freedom to vote is fundamental to our democracy, and we will fight to defend it.”

RELATED: Florida SAVE Act Makes Major Election Integrity Reforms