California mail-in ballot challenge by Trump administration dismissed by appeals court

A federal appeals court has thrown out an attempt by the Justice Department to require California election authorities to segregate thousands of mail-in ballots that the Trump administration claimed could belong to noncitizens.

In a 2-1 ruling issued on Monday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that it lacked jurisdiction to intervene. The panel granted a motion to dismiss brought by Dean Logan, the registrar-recorder and county clerk for Los Angeles County. Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez ruled that federal prosecutors acted prematurely by appealing before the federal district court had a reasonable chance to consider their application for emergency relief. Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented.

The majority sharply criticized the Justice Department for initiating legal action less than three weeks ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, noting that California had already begun distributing and processing mail-in voting forms. In an unsigned opinion, the court stated that the federal government created its own urgency through unneeded delay in filing the suit, failing to appreciate state election schedules, and not recognizing the administrative realities of handling millions of registered voters. Bennett added in a concurrence that he would have turned down the department's request on legal merits even if the court had jurisdiction.

Dissenting from the outcome, Bumatay maintained that the executive branch holds constitutional and statutory authority to defend the fairness of federal elections. He argued that Washington possesses a legitimate sovereign interest in ensuring noncitizen participation does not impact election outcomes.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom praised the ruling, calling it a vital roadblock against what he described as unlawful White House efforts to interfere in constitutional election procedures.

The clash escalated after Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter issued an ultimatum giving state and Los Angeles County officials 48 hours to examine a roster of more than 20,000 voters suspected by the administration of being noncitizens. County attorneys pushed back on Oct. 15, noting that the federal government failed to explain how the data was assembled or how local staff could properly verify citizenship, warning that compliance would breach election laws.

The Justice Department then sued California, Secretary of State Shirley Weber, and Logan, asking the court to compel officials to sequester flagged ballots until citizenship could be proven. District Judge David O. Carter set a hearing on the requested restraining order for Tuesday. Rather than waiting for that hearing, government attorneys filed an emergency appeal with the 9th Circuit, claiming the district court's brief silence was equivalent to a denial.

Attorneys representing Los Angeles County subsequently checked a sample of 200 names from the administration's list of 7,035 county records. They found that more than half involved registrations that were already canceled or inactive, meaning no ballots had been dispatched. Additionally, over a fourth of those sampled were confirmed to have been born in the United States. Across the county, workers have already processed around 550,000 returned mail ballots.