The Justice Department sought to separate ballots connected to roughly 20,000 voters it identified as possible noncitizens
By Midtown Times Staff
SAN FRANCISCO (Midtown Times) — A federal appeals court has again rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to prevent California from processing ballots associated with approximately 20,000 registered voters whose citizenship the federal government has questioned.
In a 2-1 decision Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit declined to issue an emergency injunction requiring election officials to identify and separate the disputed ballots until the voters’ citizenship could be verified.
The panel included two judges appointed by President Donald Trump and one appointed by former President Joe Biden.
The Justice Department sued California officials on Oct. 15 after providing the state with a list of more than 20,000 people that federal agencies classified as “likely” noncitizens. The department gave state officials 48 hours to verify the individuals’ citizenship or isolate any ballots connected to them.
California officials refused, questioning the reliability of the federal data and arguing that the request conflicted with the state’s established election procedures. Both federal and California law prohibit noncitizens from voting.
Court cites constitutional limits
The appeals court majority concluded that the administration had not demonstrated that such extraordinary intervention during an active election was clearly authorized by law.
The judges said the Constitution’s Elections Clause generally gives state legislatures responsibility for administering congressional elections, while allowing Congress to override state rules through legislation. Congress, however, has not enacted a law directing California to use the ballot-separation and citizenship-verification process sought by the executive branch.
The Justice Department relied in part on a federal criminal statute prohibiting noncitizen voting. The majority found that the statute regulates individual conduct but does not authorize the executive branch to dictate how states must process or challenge ballots.
The court also found that forcing California to create a new verification system days before the Nov. 3 election could disrupt voting operations and potentially prevent eligible citizens from having their ballots counted.
California officials said some ballots had already been removed from their identifying envelopes and could no longer be connected to individual voters. They also maintained that the federal list contained questionable information, including people who appeared to have been born in the United States.
Second appellate defeat
Friday’s decision marked the administration’s second loss before the Ninth Circuit in the same case.
The court dismissed an earlier appeal Monday because the federal government sought appellate intervention before U.S. District Judge David O. Carter had ruled on its request. Two members of the panel nevertheless indicated that they also doubted the administration’s underlying legal arguments.
Carter formally denied the requested restraining order Wednesday, warning that changing ballot-processing procedures during the election could create widespread disruption and disenfranchise lawful voters. The Justice Department then returned to the Ninth Circuit, which again refused to intervene.
Judge Patrick Bumatay, a Trump appointee, dissented. He argued that federal law gives the government a strong interest in preventing potentially unlawful votes from being combined with valid ballots and that the disputed ballots should be held until citizenship checks are completed.
The majority emphasized that its ruling does not permit noncitizens to vote. Rather, the dispute concerns which level of government has authority to establish the procedures used to challenge voters and process ballots.
The ruling allows California to continue following its existing election laws while the broader lawsuit proceeds. The administration could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene before Election Day.
