Supreme Court Rejects Trump Push to Block California Ballots

The United States Supreme Court declined on Monday to force California to set aside thousands of ballots cast by voters the Trump administration claims are not citizens.

The Department of Justice filed an emergency request ahead of Tuesday elections, asking the high court to segregate about 20,000 ballots until citizenship status can be verified.

Voting has been underway since early October, with ballots mailed to about 23 million registered voters across the populous Democratic state.

The legal battle carries high stakes as Republicans fight to retain control of the United States Congress in the midterm elections.

California officials argued that the federal government list was unreliable and that separating the votes could disenfranchise thousands of eligible citizens.

Lower federal courts previously rejected the administration requests, warning that sudden changes could disrupt the ongoing election.

The Supreme Court did not explain its decision and no justice publicly dissented from the ruling.

California Governor Gavin Newsom welcomed the decision in a post on X, saying, "The Court rejected Trump’s emergency request without even asking the other side to respond. Democracy won."

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the courts had repeatedly rejected the federal government attempts to interfere in state elections.

"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," said Bonta.

During earlier court hearings, Justice Department attorney Kenneth Kao acknowledged data flaws when questioned by a federal judge.

"Would you agree there's a high error rate?" said District Court Judge Trina Thompson.

"That's a fair statement," said Kao, adding that officials needed assistance from local registrars to verify valid voters.

Federal prosecutor Bill Essayli defended the effort during a news conference, stating high confidence that the flagged individuals were not entitled to cast ballots.

"This isn’t speculation. This isn’t a theory," said Essayli.

In a separate ruling on Monday, another federal judge found that separate administration demands made of California election officials violated the Constitution.

It remains unresolved how final vote tallies will be certified as local election workers finish processing millions of mail-in ballots.