Supreme Court Rejects DOJ Bid to Set Aside Thousands of California Ballots

By
Harris
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Key Points

  • The Supreme Court on Monday, Nov. 2, denied the Justice Department’s emergency request to make California set aside ballots from about 20,000 people the federal government says are likely noncitizens, the court’s order list shows.
  • Two lower courts had already refused the request: U.S. District Judge David O. Carter on Oct. 28 and a divided 9th Circuit panel on Oct. 30.
  • In a separate case, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson on Oct. 30 temporarily barred the Justice Department and Homeland Security from threatening election officials over ballots from voters on federal lists.
  • In Washington state, three groups sued on Oct. 30 to block a federal demand that ballots from 405 voters be set aside. No ruling in that case had been reported as of this update.

Updated Nov. 2, 2026, 9:45 p.m. ET. Sources: federal court records, AP, CBS News, NPR, SCOTUSblog, Reuters, Axios, Courthouse News, CNN, KOMO, MyNorthwest and The Seattle Times.

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s last-minute request to set aside thousands of California ballots from people the federal government says may not be U.S. citizens. The order came on the eve of the Nov. 3 general election, while a related lawsuit over 405 voters is pending in Washington state.

What happened

The Supreme Court order

The court’s order list for Nov. 2 states that the application for an injunction pending appeal, presented to Justice Elena Kagan and referred by her to the full court, “is denied.” CBS News described it as a one-line, unsigned order with no noted dissents and reported that the justices did not ask California officials to respond before ruling.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed the application, docketed as United States v. California, earlier on Monday, according to the court’s docket and SCOTUSblog. It asked the justices to require that ballots from people on the federal list be kept apart until their citizenship could be checked. “Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back,” Sauer wrote.

How the case reached the high court

According to the 9th Circuit’s Oct. 30 order, federal officials compiled the list using immigration records and gave it to California officials on Oct. 12. State and Los Angeles County officials declined to act on it, citing doubts about its reliability. The Justice Department sued California, Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan on Oct. 15.

Carter, of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, denied a temporary restraining order on Oct. 28. CBS News reported that he called the federal identification process “rife with uncertainty and errors.” On Oct. 30, a 9th Circuit panel denied the department’s emergency motion by a 2-1 vote. Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez cited the risk of disenfranchisement and the principle that courts should avoid changing election rules close to an election. Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented.

NPR reported that a UCLA Voting Rights Project analysis found that 42% of the names on the list do not appear on California’s current voter roll. AP and CBS News reported that California has about 23 million registered voters and that more than 6 million ballots had already been returned.

Latest development

Restraining order on threats to election officials

Separately, Thompson, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, granted a temporary restraining order on Oct. 30 in a suit by labor unions and civil rights groups, including the NAACP and LULAC. Her order bars the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from threatening or coercing election officials, and from demanding that ballots be segregated or voters removed, based only on allegations that voters are ineligible. Under its terms the order runs until 5 p.m. on Nov. 16, with a preliminary injunction hearing set for Nov. 13.

CNN and NPR reported that the administration appealed the order. On Monday, Thompson heard the department’s request to pause or dissolve it, according to Courthouse News Service and AP. “Would you agree there’s a high error rate?” Thompson asked Justice Department attorney Kenneth Kao. “That’s a fair statement,” Kao said, according to AP. LiveNewsWorld could not confirm a ruling on that request as of this update.

Ruling in Washington, D.C.

Also on Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., ordered the administration to stop demanding that California officials set aside ballots or remove voters based on its lists, Reuters and Axios reported. “The Executive Branch has likely violated the Constitution’s Elections Clause, which commits authority over election rules to the states and Congress alone,” Boasberg wrote, according to AP.

Washington state lawsuit over 405 voters

In Washington state, OneAmerica Votes, the Latino Community Fund of Washington State and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union sued President Donald Trump, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and senior officials on Oct. 30 in federal court in Seattle, according to KOMO, MyNorthwest and The Seattle Times.

The complaint says federal prosecutors sent Secretary of State Steve Hobbs a list on Oct. 26 and told the state not to count ballots from about 405 registered voters until their citizenship could be checked, KOMO reported. Acting U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd said an investigation found “with high confidence” that noncitizens were voting in Washington, The Seattle Times reported. Hobbs replied in a letter that the list “includes United States citizens and is not reliable,” according to the newspaper. LiveNewsWorld found no reported ruling in that case as of this update.

Why it matters

The disputes test how far federal officials can press states over voter eligibility during an election. California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta said courts had now rejected the administration’s attempts “not once, not twice, not three times, but four times,” according to AP and his office. The administration’s filings rely on a federal law, Section 611, that bars noncitizens from voting in federal elections. California officials have said setting aside ballots now would be logistically impossible, AP reported.

The orders do not decide whether any individual on the federal lists is eligible to vote. They address whether ballots must be set aside while voting and counting continue.

What happens next

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Sauer’s application described Nov. 10 as California’s deadline for receiving mail ballots, SCOTUSblog reported. The underlying lawsuits remain pending. In Alaska, AP and CBS News reported that a judge on Sunday dismissed a separate Justice Department suit over certification of that state’s Senate results.

Background: how mail ballots are counted, a TRO versus a preliminary injunction, when midterm results will be known and projected versus certified results. Also see the early voting record and the Alaska Senate race probe.

Related live coverage

Follow election night on our US Midterm Elections 2026 live updates page, find every guide in the US Midterm Elections 2026 hub, and get the latest Washington news on US Politics Live.

Sources