The administration’s belated efforts to crack down on alleged noncitizen voting in some states has ping-ponged across every level of the federal judiciary over the past 24 hours, with the courts largely ordering the government to back off.
A polling station in Cleveland, Ohio this morning. Jon Cherry / Getty
The Supreme Court yesterday rejected the administration’s request that California separate out up to 20,000 mail-in ballots that it alleges might be submitted by noncitizens. The court acted so quickly that it did not even ask California for its views first, as it normally does of the opposing party in such cases. This decision was ONLY specific to California and that disputed list of 20,000 mail in ballots.
At a separate hearing in Northern California, U.S. District Judge U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson asked Justice Department attorney Kenneth Kao about the accuracy of the list of the alleged 20,000 noncitizen voters.
At a separate hearing in Northern California, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson asked Justice Department attorney Kenneth Kao about the accuracy of the list of the alleged 20,000 noncitizen voters.
“Would you agree there is a high error rate?” Thompson asked. “I think that’s a fair statement,” Kao responded.
Overnight, a three judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals briefly blocked an order from Thompson that barred the administration from any action nationwide that may threaten, intimidate or coerce state or local elections officials or workers to demand that they halt processing the ballots of any registered voter solely on the basis that the ballot belongs to an individual alleged by the administration to be ineligible to vote.
Minutes after the panel issued its ruling, the full 9th Circuit court announced its plans to “rehear” the case, vacating the panel’s decision and leaving the lower court order blocking the threats intact.
In another decision overnight out of federal court in Washington, D.C., the administration was blocked from “further disclosing, transmitting, or releasing data purporting to constitute lists of individual potential or actual non-citizen voters or registered voters, to any State, county, municipal, or other local official, employee, or officer responsible for administering voter registration, issuing or processing ballots, verifying signatures, or tabulating or certifying votes.”
In all, that means as of 7 a.m. ET, the Trump administration is blocked from sending letters filled with alleged noncitizen registered voter to states for verification, and from threatening election officials with legal action if they don’t comply with the demands set out in those letters.
