Judge Orders Trump Administration to Stop Demanding California Segregate Ballots Over Its Noncitizen Lists
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled Monday that the administration's lists were flawed and included many people wrongly listed as noncitizens, and that California decides its own citizenship-verification procedures.
A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to stop demanding that California election officials segregate ballots cast by people on its lists of suspected noncitizens, Reuters reported in a wire brief read in full by the desk this cycle. The ruling by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg came a day before the November 3 midterm elections, with President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans battling to maintain majorities in both houses of Congress.
Boasberg found that the lists the administration had compiled were flawed, and included many people who were wrongly listed as noncitizens, Reuters reported. "California may decide for itself what procedures to use for verifying the citizenship of registered voters," Boasberg wrote, in the passage the wire carried. "The Executive Branch lacks authority to unilaterally impose its preferred procedures." Boasberg is based in Washington and was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, Reuters noted.
The order is the latest court ruling in the administration's California ballot fight, which this station has followed through the cycle: a district judge refused the Justice Department's original request to set aside the disputed ballots, a federal appeals court refused it again on Friday, and the administration carried an emergency request to the Supreme Court on Monday, covered separately this morning. Monday's Boasberg order addresses the administration's demands on state officials directly, and it lands with less than a day before polls open.
