Supreme Court Rejects Trump Administration Bid to Set Aside California Ballots on the Eve of the Midterms
Acting hours after the Justice Department filed its emergency request on Monday, the justices refused to force California to segregate mail ballots from more than 20,000 voters the administration alleges are likely noncitizens - leaving the state's counting procedures in place for Tuesday's vote.
HOUSTON - The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration's last-minute bid to force California to set aside mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters, acting on the eve of a midterm election that will decide control of Congress.
The justices denied the Justice Department's emergency request just hours after it was filed, in a brief one-sentence order that offered no explanation. No justice publicly dissented, and the court did not ask California to file a response - a step it ordinarily takes when an emergency case appears close. Solicitor General D. John Sauer had told the court that the United States had identified more than 20,000 people who appear to be registered to vote in California but who, in the government's view, are likely not U.S. citizens. The list, assembled by the Department of Homeland Security, was originally described in a July letter as covering more than 190,000 possible noncitizens before the Justice Department sent a revised list of 20,000 in October.
Every court to reach the question has now ruled the same way. U.S. District Judge David Carter rejected the department's request on Oct. 28, and on Friday a divided panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused it as well, concluding that forcing California to use the federal list could bar valid votes and intrude on the powers the Constitution gives the states over elections. Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented, calling the government's request reasonable.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed the ruling in a statement: 'After repeatedly losing in the lower courts, the highest court in the land firmly slapped down the Trump DOJ's baseless attack on California's electoral process - not even entertaining it.' The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling, Bloomberg Law reported.
The decision is the administration's second election setback at the high court this fall: in September the justices rejected the president's attempt to give the Postal Service extraordinary power to withhold certain mail ballots. For Texas voters, nothing about Tuesday changes - Harris County polls open at 7 a.m. under the state's own procedures - but the ruling closes the last federal courtroom door that was still open over how ballots will be counted when the polls close.
