Ninth Circuit rejects DOJ attempt to hold California ballots

A federal appeals court blocked the Trump administration on Friday from forcing California to separate ballots from more than 20,000 individuals alleged to be noncitizens. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 decision, finding that the government did not demonstrate that such an extraordinary intervention was clearly required by law during an active election cycle.

The majority opinion, authored by judges Mark Bennet and Gabriel Sanchez, agreed with the lower court that there was no practical method to identify and isolate specific ballots without risking severe disruption to the entire voting system. Judge Bennet, a Trump nominee, and Judge Sanchez, a Biden nominee, formed the majority. The dissenting judge, Patrick Bumatay, also a Trump appointee, argued the remedy was modest and that the federal government should have been allowed to attempt the process.

This marks the second time in one week the appeals court has denied the administration’s request to intervene in the case. The Justice Department initially filed suit earlier this month, demanding that California election officials set aside the ballots in question. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Carter had already ruled that the request violated constitutional principles that give states control over their elections.

Judge Carter criticized the administration’s methodology for generating the list of disputed names. He noted that the Department of Homeland Security had previously estimated that approximately 200,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in California, a figure much larger than the 20,000 targeted in this lawsuit. The judge called the government’s process vague and unreliable, pointing to inconsistencies in similar claims made in other states.

In Nevada, the administration alleged that 15,903 registered voters were noncitizens. That number was later reduced to 6,218, and then to 185 after a manual review. Nevada officials subsequently confirmed that all 185 individuals were citizens. Judge Carter cited this history to question the credibility of the current claims in California.

The appeals court also rejected the government’s argument that it needed emergency intervention, stating that the urgency was partly self-created because the agency waited too close to the election to act. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether it would seek an emergency appeal from the Supreme Court.

Kristen Clarke, general counsel of the NAACP, which helped defend the case, said the Justice Department sought to discard the votes of more than 20,000 Californians without credible evidence. She stated that the decision affirms that elections must be governed by facts and law rather than political interference.