The Supreme Court on Monday denied the Trump administration's bid to make California set aside ballots from about 20,000 people it called likely noncitizens.
Zoom in: The order in United States v. California, docket 26A624, runs one sentence: the application for injunction pending appeal, presented to Justice Kagan and referred by her to the Court, is denied.
The backstory: The Justice Department sued in federal district court in Los Angeles on October 15. Judge David Carter denied the request to set the ballots aside last Wednesday, and a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel turned down the appeal 2-1 on Friday.
- "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," Carter wrote.
What they're saying: Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued the clock was the problem: once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back.
- California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the bid a Hail Mary and said it was baseless.
The other side: California says the federal list is riddled with inaccuracies and accuses the president of trying to sow doubt in the democratic process.
By the numbers: About 20,000 voters sat on the list the DOJ assembled. Two lower courts and then the Supreme Court all declined to pull those ballots out of the count.
Why it matters: Polls open Tuesday with control of Congress at stake, and the ruling leaves California counting every challenged ballot. The court gave no reasoning, so it sets no precedent for the next state handed the same demand.
