The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s request to require California to set aside ballots from more than 20,000 voters whose citizenship it questioned ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The court’s brief, unsigned order did not explain its decision or say whether any of the nine justices dissented.
The request followed a ruling last week by a federal court in Los Angeles rejecting a Justice Department demand that California election officials isolate the ballots. On Monday, US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington issued a similar decision, saying the government’s lists of potentially ineligible voters were inaccurate. He barred the administration from asking California officials to separate the ballots, finding that such a demand would probably violate the Constitution.
The Justice Department appealed the Los Angeles ruling. In its filing to the Supreme Court, the administration said more than 20,000 people on California’s voter rolls were, in its view, probably not US citizens, and asked the justices to order that their ballots be kept apart until their validity could be checked.
A federal judge in San Francisco had also ordered the Justice and Homeland Security departments on Friday to stop pressuring election officials, particularly in California.
The article reports that the Trump administration has recently announced prosecutions and arrests involving noncitizens accused of voting or attempting to vote. In a statement on Monday, the Justice Department said it had brought 63 such indictments, bringing its stated total to 195 over the previous nine weeks.
Sources: Le Figaro.