Supreme Court Refuses Trump Emergency Bid to Set Aside 20,000 California Ballots

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday swiftly rejected an emergency request from the Trump administration to force California election officials to set aside 20,000 mail-in ballots. The administration had claimed without extensive documentation that the ballots were submitted by noncitizens, marking the latest in a series of legal defeats for federal intervention in state election processes.

The high court declined to intervene in the case involving voters flagged on the voter rolls of the heavily Democratic state, issuing its decision just hours after the Justice Department filed its emergency appeal. The justices did not detail their reasoning, as is standard practice for emergency docket decisions, and noted no recorded dissents.

The Supreme Court ruling arrived on the heels of a separate federal court decision in Washington, where a judge ordered the administration to halt its demands that California segregate the ballots. That federal judge wrote that the executive branch had likely violated the Constitution’s Elections Clause, which grants authority over election rules exclusively to states and Congress.

State officials in California celebrated the rulings, pointing out that voting has been underway since early October across a state with roughly 23 million registered voters. California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber emphasized that millions of residents could focus on casting their ballots on the eve of Election Day.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta noted that courts at every level had rejected the administration’s interference efforts. “Courts have now rejected the Trump Administration’s attempts to interfere in California’s elections not once, not twice, not three times, but four times—from the district court to the Ninth Circuit to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Bonta said in a statement.

Governor Gavin Newsom also condemned the federal push as a baseless attack on the electoral process. Meanwhile, election experts and local leaders highlighted that noncitizen voting is extremely rare and that administration lists of alleged noncitizens acknowledged high potential error rates during lower court hearings.

The high court’s refusal to take up the emergency request leaves state election procedures intact as voters head to the polls for the midterms, which are expected to shape the congressional balance of power in Washington.