This is a developing story and will be updated.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is suing the Trump administration over its decision to move Space Command Headquarters from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama.
“This decision was not based on any formal criteria. It didn't follow the statutorily required evaluation process, didn't have any studies, reviews, or notice. It didn't offer validation or justification,” said Weiser at a press conference Wednesday announcing the legal challenge. “Instead, President Trump stated that Colorado's mail-in voting system played a major part for his decision or as he put it, ‘a big factor.’”
During the early September press conference announcing the move, Trump said, “The problem I have with Colorado, one of the big problems, they do mail-in voting … so they have automatically crooked elections.”
Colorado lawmakers had argued that moving the command would disrupt readiness and operational capability and hand “the advantage to the converging threats of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.”
In a filing with the federal district court in Denver, Weiser argues that Trump’s motivations make the move unconstitutional. “The Constitution does not permit the Executive to punish or retaliate against States for lawfully exercising sovereign powers reserved for the States.”
In this case, that power is states’ constitutional authority to manage and regulate their elections.
CPR News reached out to the White House for comment and is awaiting a response. Weiser did telegraph his legal plans, saying shortly after the decision in September that he would sue to stop it.
The fight over where to headquarter Space Command has become a years-long battle between Colorado, which had historically been home of the command, and Alabama, a state that has long supported Trump and which consistently made the military’s list of finalists for the headquarters.
