By The Trump administration’s effort to have California set aside thousands of mail ballots for citizenship checks hit a roadblock Monday, when a divided federal appeals court dismissed the Justice Department’s appeal without deciding whether the voters it flagged were noncitizens.
The 2-1 ruling turned on procedure and timing. The majority on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, one of the most liberal circuits in the nation, concluded that federal officials had not given the district court enough time to consider their emergency request, leaving the appeals court without jurisdiction. The decision leaves the administration’s requested safeguards on hold as California continues processing ballots ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms, according to CBS News.
Stunning admission by California during yesterday’s Ninth Circuit hearing.
California admitted they do nothing to check the citizenship status of voters and will count the illegal ballots of noncitizens who vote. This is why we’re seeking an emergency order. We cannot allow… pic.twitter.com/YxTmFvnn4i
— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) October 26, 2026
Judges Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, and Gabriel Sanchez, a Biden appointee, faulted the department for suing less than three weeks before Election Day and waiting until last week to seek a temporary restraining order.
“The United States’s claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one,” the court said in an unsigned opinion. “At least part of the delay here is attributable to the United States’s own delay in filing suit, in realizing that existing California state law governs the issuance and processing of ballots, in recognizing that California has millions of registered voters and processes ballots on a schedule aligned with that scale, and in communicating to the court its desired relief.”
Both judges wrote separate concurrences. Bennett said he would have rejected the requested order even if the panel had reached the underlying legal arguments.
Judge Patrick Bumatay, also appointed by Trump, dissented, arguing that Washington has a clear responsibility to protect federal elections from unlawful voting.
“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,’” he wrote. “Simply, the federal government has a sovereign interest in safeguarding federal elections and ensuring that the votes of noncitizens do not undermine our electoral results.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded by casting the citizenship-check effort as an attack on democracy, like always. He called the ruling a “positive development and a welcome speed bump to Trump’s disgusting attacks on the Constitution and our country’s democracy.”
“Trump is illegally trying to seize powers in the Constitution entrusted to others so he can stay in power. This lawsuit is just the latest step,” Newsom said. “Make no mistake: Trump’s assault on democracy won’t slow down.”
The dispute began with letters from Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County’s top elections official, Dean Logan. The department identified more than 20,000 registered voters it described as “likely” noncitizens who had received mail ballots and gave officials 48 hours to review the list.
Los Angeles County responded Oct. 15 that the records included voters throughout California and did not explain how the list was assembled or how citizenship should be verified. A county attorney accused the department of asking Logan “to engage in an unlawful course of conduct.”
The Justice Department sued that day, seeking an order requiring officials to segregate ballots associated with the list and independently confirm citizenship before counting them. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter scheduled a Tuesday hearing, but the department appealed, arguing that his failure to act immediately amounted to a “constructive denial.” The appeals court heard arguments during a rare Sunday session.
California began mailing ballots in early October. Los Angeles County had already processed an estimated 550,000 mail ballots, according to court filings, adding urgency to a dispute unfolding just before voters decide control of Congress.
There are substantial questions about the government’s list. The Department of Homeland Security has not explained its identification process to California officials. The Justice Department said in court filings that it compares voter rolls with internal records, third-party software and Social Security Administration data.
County lawyers said that, among 7,035 records with Los Angeles County addresses, they examined a sample of 200. Of those, 112 corresponded to canceled or inactive registrations for which no ballot had been mailed. Most people in the sample had never voted, and more than one-quarter had a U.S. birthplace listed, according to a county election official.
California officials also argue that the lawsuit does not allege that the listed individuals will actually cast unlawful ballots. Logan’s lawyers contend that the administration is exceeding its constitutional authority, pointing to the Elections Clause, which assigns states control over the “times, places and manners” of congressional elections unless Congress intervenes.
Trump has pushed Congress to require proof of citizenship for voter registration and has claimed that more than 190,000 noncitizens are registered in California. Those claims remain disputed; both federal and California law prohibit noncitizen voting.
The administration is continuing its push. Federal prosecutors sent similar demands Friday to at least 18 other California county registrars, and the Justice Department has until 7 p.m. local time to seek reconsideration by the full 9th Circuit. Monday’s ruling settled the immediate appeal. It did not establish whether the people on the government’s list are eligible voters.
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