Supreme Court rejects emergency federal request to block California mail-in ballots, dealing another setback to the Trump administration’s election-related legal efforts…reports Asian Lite News Desk
The Supreme Court has rejected a last-minute Justice Department bid to stop California from counting mail-in ballots cast by roughly 20,000 voters the government claimed may not be U.S. citizens.
The court issued its one-sentence order Monday evening, just hours after the department filed its emergency request and on the eve of Election Day. The justices gave no reason for the decision and recorded no dissents.
Justice Elena Kagan referred the application to the full court, which includes three justices appointed by President Donald Trump.The decision marked another courtroom setback for the administration as it pursues several election-related legal battles ahead of midterm contests that will determine control of Congress.California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the ruling “completely appropriate” and “very expected.”
“This was a Hail Mary. It was baseless,” Bonta told CNBC. He noted that the court acted without first asking California to respond to the government’s request, which he described as “very rare.”
The Justice Department said Tuesday it was disappointed but vowed to continue its efforts.
“We are deploying election monitors in California and across the country to observe compliance with federal law,” a department spokesperson said, adding that officials would pursue other legal avenues to ensure only eligible citizens vote.
The department sued California on Oct. 15, seeking to prevent officials from counting ballots from people it described as likely noncitizens until their citizenship could be checked. Noncitizens are barred from voting in federal elections.Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court that the government had identified more than 20,000 people who appeared to be registered in California and, in its view, were likely not citizens.
“Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back,” Sauer argued. But the government’s list has faced scrutiny. During a hearing in a separate California case Monday, a Justice Department lawyer acknowledged that lists of purported noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls had a “high error rate,” according to MS NOW.
The lawyer argued that the errors showed why officials needed to examine the rolls. Last week, U.S. District Judge David Carter refused to order California officials to set aside the ballots. He said the case concerned “the right of every American citizen to vote in a free and fair election.”
A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision Friday. The majority warned that granting the government’s request carried “a material risk” of disenfranchising voters.
In a separate election dispute Sunday, a federal judge dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to delay certification of Alaska’s U.S. Senate race under certain circumstances. The department is appealing that ruling.
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