Key takeaways:
- The appeals court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction because the Justice Department’s appeal was premature.
- The department seeks to segregate mail ballots associated with a list of more than 20,000 registered voters alleged to be likely noncitizens.
- A Los Angeles federal judge has a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
A federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s bid Monday to stop California from counting mail ballots cast by voters the government alleges may be noncitizens. The court said the Justice Department appealed before a district judge had enough time to consider its request.
The San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled after an unusual Sunday afternoon oral argument. The decision leaves the dispute before U.S. District Judge David O. Carter in Los Angeles, who has a hearing scheduled for Tuesday, according to Talking Points Memo.
The Justice Department wants Los Angeles County to immediately segregate mail ballots from voters on a federal list of more than 20,000 registered voters alleged to be likely noncitizens. Under the department’s proposed order, those ballots would not be counted until officials verified the voters’ citizenship. County election officials dispute the reliability of the list, according to Talking Points Memo.
The appeals court did not decide whether the proposed ballot restrictions were lawful. In a ruling joined by Judges Mark J. Bennett and Gabriel P. Sanchez, the court said the department’s appeal was premature because it had not given the district court adequate time to consider its application for a temporary restraining order.
“[T]he United States failed to allow the district court adequate opportunity to consider its application for a Temporary Restraining Order,” the court wrote. “For that reason, we lack jurisdiction over this appeal.”
The department had asked Carter to hold a hearing within three business hours. When he did not, it argued that the delay amounted to a denial of its request and appealed, according to Talking Points Memo. The district court had not yet heard the case or issued a ruling.
The appeals court also said the department bore some responsibility for the timing. “The United States’s claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one,” the judges wrote. They cited delays in filing suit, accounting for California’s ballot-processing rules and communicating the relief the department wanted.
Bennett and Sanchez wrote separate concurring opinions saying they would have ruled against the administration on the merits as well, according to Talking Points Memo. Judge Patrick J. Bumatay dissented. The panel’s decision rested on jurisdiction rather than the underlying voting dispute.
Los Angeles County election officials say the request arrived while voting was already underway and would make it impossible to meet the existing deadline for certifying results, Talking Points Memo reported. They also argue that deadlines for challenging voter eligibility on this scale have passed.
The dispute extends beyond Los Angeles County. At least 18 California counties received letters Friday demanding that election officials set aside and verify ballots the administration says belong to noncitizens, The Guardian reported. Talking Points Memo reported that the Justice Department sent letters to officials in every California county warning of possible criminal prosecution if they failed to follow its demand.
The lawsuit comes ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. For now, the appeals court’s ruling leaves the Justice Department’s requested ballot restrictions unenforced.
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