The Supreme Court on Monday denied an emergency request from the Trump administration to require California election officials to segregate mail ballots associated with more than 20,000 individuals the Justice Department described as “likely” noncitizens.
The one-sentence order, which was issued without explanation or noted dissents, came hours after the filing and on the eve of the midterm elections. The Court did not request a response from California before acting.
The administration’s case centered on a list of more than 20,000 people it said appeared on California voter rolls based on publicly available registration data but were likely not U.S. citizens according to federal records. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Court that these individuals had been identified through cross-checks with immigration and related databases.
The Justice Department argued that California’s practice of mailing ballots to all registered voters, combined with limited independent citizenship verification, risked allowing ineligible ballots to be counted. Officials asked courts to order the segregation of any returned ballots from people on the list so they could be held aside while citizenship status was investigated.
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BREAKING: The Supreme Court denied the Trump administration’s emergency request to force California to set aside mail-in ballots from roughly 20,000 suspected noncitizens until their citizenship could be verified, one day before the midterm elections. pic.twitter.com/hjQzYV7Ht3
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) November 2, 2026
Segregation, they said, would not cancel votes but would prevent the irreversible mixing of potentially illegal ballots with lawful ones. Once ballots are tabulated together, the administration contended, any dilution of citizen votes cannot be undone.
Lower courts had already rejected the request. U.S. District Judge David Carter denied a temporary restraining order, describing the process used to identify the individuals as “rife with uncertainty and errors.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, likewise declined to intervene.
The majority concluded that the federal government lacks authority to dictate state procedures for handling mail ballots in this manner and that forcing segregation carried a risk of preventing valid votes from being counted. The appeals court noted that any change in how states administer elections would be better addressed by Congress.
In practical terms, the Supreme Court’s denial means California may continue processing and counting the ballots in the ordinary course. No court ordered the state to pull, hold, or set aside specific ballots linked to the list.
Bill Essayli, who currently serves as First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, has maintained that the figure of more than 20,000 represents a floor rather than a complete total. In a recent interview with Fox News, he stated that investigators believe “it’s at a minimum of 20,000. That’s the floor,” with the potential ceiling substantially higher.
Essayli further pointed to an earlier Department of Homeland Security communication that flagged nearly 200,000 voters as possible noncitizens. The 20,000 figure, he explained, reflects those who had undergone further manual review against federal databases and were assessed with higher confidence. Essayli has said the number continues to grow as additional records are examined.
