A federal appeals court on Monday threw out the Trump administration’s emergency bid to make California set aside mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters the federal government says are likely noncitizens, according to CBS News and NBC Bay Area. The fight now moves back to a Los Angeles federal courtroom on Tuesday, eight days before the November 3 midterms.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 that it lacked jurisdiction because the Justice Department did not give the district court an “adequate opportunity” to rule on its request for a temporary restraining order, CBS News reported. The panel granted a motion by Los Angeles County’s top elections official to dismiss the appeal, according to CBS News.
BREAKING: In a 2-1 vote, the Ninth Circuit dismissed the Trump administration's emergency appeal seeking to require California to set aside mail ballots from more than 20,000 suspected noncitizens pending citizenship verification, finding it lacked jurisdiction. pic.twitter.com/Lf96HHPIPO
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) October 26, 2026
Judges Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, and Gabriel Sanchez, a Biden appointee, formed the majority, CBS News reported. In an unsigned opinion, the court wrote that “the United States’s claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one,” faulting the department for filing suit less than three weeks before Election Day, according to CBS News.
Dissent: Washington Has a Duty to Protect Federal Elections
Judge Patrick Bumatay, also a Trump appointee, dissented. “The question — does the federal government have the power to stop this potential attack on the integrity of our elections? Under both federal law and the Constitution, the answer must be ‘yes,'” Bumatay wrote, as quoted by CBS News. He added that “the federal government has a sovereign interest in safeguarding federal elections and ensuring that the votes of noncitizens do not undermine our electoral results,” according to the same report.
Both federal and California law already bar noncitizens from voting, CBS News noted. The Justice Department sued California, Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan on October 15, after officials refused its demand to review the list within 48 hours and hold ballots from anyone whose citizenship they could not confirm, according to CBS News. The department told the court it built the list by checking voter rolls against Homeland Security records, Social Security data and third-party software, CBS News reported.
What Happens Next
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter had already set a Tuesday hearing on the government’s request before the department went to the appeals court, CBS News reported. NBC Bay Area reported that the lower court is scheduled to hear arguments, and that the appeals judges said they lacked jurisdiction because the district court had not yet ruled. The panel also gave the government a deadline to ask the full Ninth Circuit to reconsider, according to CBS News.
California officials dispute the list. Lawyers for Los Angeles County said they reviewed a sample of 200 of the 7,035 records with county addresses and found that 112 matched registrations that were canceled or inactive, so no ballot was mailed, according to CBS News. The county also said more than a quarter of the sampled voters listed a U.S. birthplace, the outlet reported. Los Angeles County has already processed an estimated 550,000 mail ballots, according to court filings cited by CBS News.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called the decision “a welcome speed bump,” according to CBS News. Federal prosecutors sent similar lists to at least 18 more California county registrars on Friday, the outlet reported.
The ruling lands as the administration presses its election-integrity push nationwide. President Trump has urged Congress to require proof of citizenship to register, CBS News reported. Whether 20,000 California ballots get a second look before they are counted now rests with Judge Carter.
Sources
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, order in United States v. California, No. 26-7070
- CBS News
- NBC Bay Area
Sources cited
Sources
- Original post: SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) on X, Oct 26, 2026
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