Judge blocks Trump‑backed purge of non‑citizen voters in California

Lawsuit challenges state voter‑registration database

The California Democratic Party and several local election officials filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s voter-registration database. The lawsuit argues that the purge would violate voting rights and challenges claims that the database contains non-citizen entries.

Local election officials in several California counties examined data Trump cited regarding non-citizen voters. They found the data were outdated and contained numerous errors, including misidentifying lawful permanent residents as non-citizens.

The California Secretary of State’s office confirmed that the voter-registration system undergoes regular audits. The office stated that any purge must follow strict verification procedures.

Trump administration pressures California officials

On Friday the Trump administration sent letters to California election officials demanding they set aside ballots from suspected non‑citizens and warned of criminal charges if the state allowed those votes to be counted. The administration’s lawsuit filed earlier this month alleged that California officials failed to meet a 48‑hour federal deadline to isolate up to 20,000 flagged ballots until citizenship could be verified, and it sought a temporary restraining order. California officials pushed back, saying the demand would force them to abandon election duties and amounted to illegal meddling that could disenfranchise legal voters. Deputy Attorney General Anne Bellows said the initiative amounts to removing voting rights from thousands of individuals until they can prove otherwise.

U.S. District Judge Carter sets timeline for ruling

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter. Carter said he is concerned that the Trump administration’s demand to set aside 20,000 ballots could disenfranchise valid voters. Carter plans to issue a formal ruling by Wednesday and will likely appoint a special master to weigh evidence at a hearing in two weeks.

Carter said he did not want to "just wing it with a ruling" based on evidence the federal government submitted the night before Tuesday’s hearing. He indicated his ruling will order federal authorities to stop threatening state and county election employees with criminal charges for failing to comply with administration demands.

The judge observed that federal prosecutors indicted 28 California green‑card holders last week for allegedly registering or voting in breach of statutes that bar noncitizens from taking part in elections. Carter said if noncitizens were voting in numbers as large as the administration claims, prosecutors could indict them without risking the counting of legal voters’ ballots.

Audit of flagged voters shows most are citizens

Los Angeles County officials sampled 200 names from the federal list to verify citizenship status. The audit revealed that a large number of the persons were probably citizens, yet the majority had never voted previously and did not receive ballots. After a federal re-review of the sample, officials determined that only four of those 200 individuals were citizens.

9th Circuit judges reject emergency bypass request

The Circuit Court of Appeals turned down an urgent request by the Trump administration to circumvent Carter’s courtroom. The panel stated the claimed emergency was self-constructed.

Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, wrote a concurring opinion expressing "serious doubts" about the federal government’s claim that prosecutors could intervene in a state’s election administration. Bennett pointed out that Congress granted election authority to the states rather than to the executive branch.

Judge Patrick Bumatay, a Trump appointee, dissented and contended that federal law bars California from mixing ballots that are probably cast by aliens with valid ballots, as such mixing promotes illegal voting. Bumatay wrote that ceasing the practice of targeting individuals identified as likely noncitizens is the "bare minimum".