The plaintiffs, the watchdog group American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), alleges that the defendants, President Donald Trump and the Vice President Michael Pence, are in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act by establishing the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity for the purpose of supporting the President's "claim that he won the popular vote in the 2016 election—once millions of supposedly illegal votes are subtracted from the count."

Kobach is a defendant in a parallel lawsuit filed by Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia judge is Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, formerly presiding judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA).

According to the text of the complaint, the suit asks for relief in the nature of mandamus and declaratory judgement.

In anticipation of a government reply in September, the ACLU described certain recent actions of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity which it contends were insufficient to meet its obligations specifically in respect to its planned meeting on July 19, 2017.