The Trump administration asked SCOTUS on Monday to stop California from counting mail-in ballots submitted by voters on a list of more than 20,000 people federal officials suspect may not be U.S. citizens.
The emergency request landed one day before the midterm elections, escalating a fight over whether California must separate those voters’ ballots and verify their citizenship before counting them.
With control of Congress at stake, the Justice Department is seeking intervention after a federal judge and an appeals court rejected its requests to sideline the disputed ballots.
The list identifies registered voters whose citizenship the administration questions.
The legal battle began Oct. 15, when the Justice Department sued California in federal court in Los Angeles. Its complaint sought to prevent officials from tabulating mail-in ballots “from likely non-citizens in the upcoming federal election until the voter’s citizenship status can be determined.”
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Federal law bars noncitizens from voting in federal elections.
Before filing suit, the department gave Los Angeles County officials a thumb drive containing names of voters it suspected might not be citizens. The administration sought to have ballots from voters on the Department of Homeland Security list set aside until their eligibility could be verified.
U.S. District Judge David Carter denied the administration’s request for a temporary restraining order Oct. 28, accusing the executive branch of trying to override California’s election procedures.
“This case is about the right of every American citizen to vote in a free and fair election,” Carter said in his ruling.
“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch,” Carter wrote. “In bringing this lawsuit, the Executive would have this Court believe that it reigns as a sole sovereign. But California and its people are sovereign, too.”
The Justice Department then sought an injunction pending appeal from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That court denied the request Friday.
Monday’s emergency filing takes the administration’s push to the nation’s highest court as Republicans fight to maintain their House and Senate majorities.
