The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an emergency request from the Trump administration to force California to segregate more than 20,000 mail-in ballots flagged for potential noncitizen voting, just one day before the midterm elections.
Justice Elena Kagan denied the application without comment and referred it to the full Court, which rejected it with no noted dissents, according to Democracy Docket. The decision came hours after the Department of Justice filed its appeal, leaving California's vote-counting procedures in place as polls open Tuesday.
The DOJ had asked the high court to intervene after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the request Friday, with Judge Patrick Bumatay dissenting, and a federal judge in Los Angeles issued a similar ruling last week. The administration argued that segregating the ballots would preserve them for review without canceling any votes.
"Once illegally cast ballots are counted and commingled with lawful votes, the resulting harm is impossible to remedy," the Department of Justice wrote in its filing.
California officials say their safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust and contend the federal list may contain errors that could disenfranchise eligible voters. Data scientists working with an immigrants rights group told Democracy Docket on Saturday that the government's list was missing the state voter identification number — described as the "single most critical column" — and included mismatched dates, dozens of U.S. citizens, and thousands of people not currently registered to vote in California.
The case stems from an Oct. 15 DOJ lawsuit alleging California is impeding enforcement of a federal law barring noncitizens from voting in federal elections. The administration claims the state violated the Constitution's Supremacy Clause. On Monday evening, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., said it was "likely" the Trump administration violated the Constitution by taking over election responsibilities from the states and Congress, according to Fox News Politics.
Next News Network flagged the developing fight earlier Monday on X, noting that the DOJ was weighing a Supreme Court filing before Election Day. "California counts for weeks, so DOJ is the only one in a hurry," the post read. A second post confirmed the administration had asked the justices to stop California from counting the flagged ballots — a request the Court declined to grant.
The dispute unfolds amid a broader administration push to influence how states run elections, including demands for access to voter rolls and warnings that officials could face prosecution for knowingly allowing noncitizens to vote. California, the nation's most populous state, holds 52 House seats. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control of the chamber.
The Supreme Court's rejection marks the third time this fall it has declined to intervene in Trump-backed election measures, following decisions in September that blocked restrictions on mail voting and threw out Missouri's congressional gerrymander, according to Democracy Docket. More than 6 million early votes have already been cast in California.
Our Take
Patriots, read that ruling carefully. The Supreme Court just told the federal government it cannot set aside 20,000 ballots flagged as potentially cast by noncitizens — and it did so on the eve of an election, without a single justice noting a dissent.
That should trouble every American who believes only citizens should decide American elections. The DOJ's argument was modest: hold the ballots aside while eligibility is checked, don't cancel a single vote. The Court said no. Now those ballots get commingled with lawful votes, and as the DOJ warned, the harm becomes impossible to remedy.
California and its allies insist the federal list is riddled with errors and that their safeguards work. Maybe. But the remedy for an error is to check the list — not to count the ballots and sort it out later. The Left has spent years telling us noncitizen voting is a myth while fighting every attempt to verify it. Why the panic over a simple audit?
The Constitution's Supremacy Clause means what it says. Federal law bars noncitizens from voting in federal elections. The executive branch has the authority to enforce that law — or it is supposed to. Instead, three times this fall the high court has sided with the states and the party machinery over the administration's election-integrity efforts.
So here's the question every voter should carry into the voting booth Tuesday: if the federal government cannot even set aside a ballot pending a citizenship check, what exactly is it allowed to do to secure our elections? And who benefits from that answer?
