The US Supreme Court denied the Trump administration’s emergency request to segregate California mail ballots on 2 November. The Justice Department alleged some voters might lack US citizenship and sought to withhold their ballots from counting. The refusal follows an appeals-court rejection and leaves the underlying litigation’s wider claims unresolved.
The US Supreme Court denied the Trump administration’s emergency application to separate California mail ballots on the evening of 2 November. The Justice Department had sought intervention after losing in the lower courts. The refusal came immediately before the midterm elections. It rejected the requested interim measure while the underlying litigation continued. No dissenting opinion was recorded.[1], [2]
The Justice Department alleged that 20,000 California mail ballots might be cast by noncitizens. It wanted those ballots segregated and withheld from counting, allowing them to be counted during litigation only if US citizenship could be established. A federal appeals court had rejected that request on Friday, warning that granting it could disenfranchise voters and jeopardise the affected county’s entire election. The Supreme Court’s refusal left the administration without the emergency intervention it requested.[1]
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles compared the government’s list with a database of naturalised citizens. They found more than 6,000 names for which a match was considered highly probable, indicating that registered citizen voters could be affected. That assessment did not conclusively identify every person listed. The appeals court had pointed to California’s existing procedures as the route for challenging noncitizen ballots. The high court’s emergency refusal does not finally decide every claim in the lawsuit.[1]
