Justice Department Asks Supreme Court to Order California to Set Aside 20,000 Mail Ballots

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday, one day before Election Day, to order California to set aside more than 20,000 mail ballots that the Justice Department says were cast by likely noncitizens. The emergency application followed a Friday ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which declined to require the segregation; Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented. A federal judge in Los Angeles had also rejected the request the previous week. Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote that once California mixes the challenged ballots with lawful ones, they cannot be retrieved, and he called segregation a "modest remedy" that would preserve the court's ability to grant relief later. The Justice Department said the step would not cancel any votes. California says its safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust and that the federal list may contain errors that could disenfranchise eligible voters. The state's secretary of state's office said more than 6 million mail ballots had been returned as of Sunday. County officials in Los Angeles said only 7,035 of the 20,000 names on the list, sent in October, had LA County addresses, and some people on it were confirmed U.S.-born citizens.

Right-leaning outlets Fox News and the New York Post lead with the Justice Department's argument. Fox presents the request as a limited injunction that preserves ballots during an investigation, includes an appearance by an acting deputy attorney general, and notes the state's concerns about errors. The Post calls it a "last-ditch plea" and quotes Sauer, but it also reports the county's finding that only 7,035 names had LA County addresses and that some listed people were citizens. It says it sought comment from Gov. Gavin Newsom's and Attorney General Rob Bonta's offices. Left-leaning CBS News and NPR frame it as an emergency appeal after repeated losses in lower courts, with CBS adding the 6 million returned ballots and Sauer's quotes, and both putting "likely" and "claims" around the noncitizen label. Both sides agree on the 20,000 figure, the timing and the Ninth Circuit ruling. The Hill adds that lower courts found the list not credible, and CNBC links the case to a separate DOJ appeal over Alaska's Senate election.