Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Trump DOJ Bid to Segregate 20,000 California Ballots Before Midterms

The Supreme Court on November 2 quickly rejected an emergency request by the Trump administration's Justice Department to force California to set aside more than 20,000 mail ballots ahead of the midterm elections. The court acted with no noted dissent, turning away the application within hours of it being filed, a notably fast and lopsided outcome even from a court with a strong conservative majority.

The DOJ had argued that the 20,000-plus voters in question were "likely" noncitizens and that once California commingled the disputed ballots with lawful ones, there would be no way to recover them. Solicitor General D. John Sauer signed the application, urging the court to segregate the ballots now to preserve the possibility of relief after a full merits proceeding. The administration's push was part of a broader escalation against California election officials that included DOJ subpoenas to county election offices in the final weeks before Election Day.

Before reaching the Supreme Court, the request had already been rejected by federal district judge David Carter, a Clinton appointee who described the administration's conduct as part of "a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference by federal officials," and by a divided Ninth Circuit panel. The Supreme Court's refusal to intervene, with no justice publicly dissenting, ends the administration's legal effort to sideline those ballots before votes are counted.