Acting on the eve of the US midterm elections, the Supreme Court quickly rejected on Monday a bid by President Donald Trump’s administration to temporarily block California from counting mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters who federal officials allege are likely non-US citizens.
The justices denied the Justice Department’s emergency request just hours after it filed it, shutting down the administration’s claims over disputed ballots that could have affected thousands of voters and injected uncertainty into election outcomes.
The decision represented another defeat for Trump as his fellow Republicans fight to retain control of Congress in Tuesday’s midterms. California is the most populous US state and a Democratic stronghold.
The administration intensified its focus on alleged noncitizen voting in the run-up to the midterms. Multiple studies and state audits show that ineligible voting, including by noncitizens, is rare.
The Supreme Court’s brief, one-sentence order on Monday did not offer any explanation of its action, as is common when it handles emergency matters. No justice publicly dissented from the decision. The court also did not ask California for a response to the administration’s request, a step that, when taken, usually signals serious consideration of an emergency case.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, called the decision “a welcome sight for all Americans given the disgusting and dangerous attacks on our democracy by the federal government.”
“Tomorrow (Tuesday), Californians can feel secure in knowing the state will carry out a free and fair election — just as we’ve always done,” Newsom added.
A federal appeals court refused the administration’s request on Friday.
The administration had demanded that California separate any allegedly unlawful ballots from other ballots and not count them until those voters are determined to be US citizens.
“Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back,” the Justice Department said in its request to the Supreme Court.
Trump has made false claims about widespread US voting fraud, including in the 2020 election lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
“We will continue pursuing every available legal avenue to protect the integrity of our elections and ensure federal law is enforced,” acting US Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said in a social media post after the administration’s filing earlier in the day.
Constitutional questions
The US Constitution assigns the responsibility of administering elections to states, though the federal government has some oversight. The lawsuit marked a rare federal intervention in the voting process and signalled a willingness by the administration to contest the election results in court.
