Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Efforts to Target Suspected Non-Citizen Voters in California

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday quickly rejected the California administration’s request that California segregate up to 20,000 mail-in ballots that officials say could be submitted by noncitizens.

In a brief order without explanation, the court denied an emergency request filed by the Trump administration hours earlier in an unusual flurry of last-minute election litigation. Lower courts have also ruled against the Trump administration.

The court acted so quickly that it did not even ask California for its opinion, as it usually does in such cases.

California officials resisted Justice Department intervention, pointing out that it is already illegal under state law for noncitizens to vote and expressing skepticism that the federal government’s information is accurate.

Separately, the administration has warned California election officials that they could face lawsuits if they allow noncitizens to vote. A federal judge on Saturday asked the Justice Department to stop making such threats.

Although elections are administered exclusively by local officials, the Trump administration says it has reason to intervene because there is a federal law that prohibits non-citizens from voting.

Trump has long claimed, without evidence, that millions of non-citizens vote illegally in US elections. Experts say this rarely happens.

That hasn’t stopped the administration from pressuring states to verify voters’ citizenship, including using a federal database.

But these efforts have encountered numerous setbacks. When the federal government said it had confirmed that 185 noncitizens were registered to vote in Nevada, the state responded that they were all, in fact, citizens.

Thousands of mail-in ballots have already been submitted and processed in California. Once election officials verify whether a ballot is valid by checking the voter’s signature against voter registration records, details identifying the voter are removed before the vote is counted. As a result, it would be impossible to retroactively determine which votes may have been cast by the alleged non-citizens.

In rejecting the Trump administration’s claims, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said there was no evidence that Congress intended federal law barring noncitizens from voting to preempt state election laws.