Federal judge halts DOJ and DHS pressure campaign against election officials
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U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson issued an emergency restraining order stopping the Justice Department and Homeland Security from bullying state election officials over ballot handling and voter eligibility. The ruling blocks intimidation tactics and underscores growing legal resistance to what critics see as an anti-democratic federal overreach.
U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson granted a temporary restraining order Friday evening, stopping the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from trying to strong-arm state election officials into segregating ballots, purging voter rolls, or halting ballot processing. The order also bars threats of criminal prosecution and any other moves that could intimidate or coerce officials over ballot procedures.
Thompson, appointed by President Joe Biden, wrote that when officials are carrying out lawful procedures for the 2026 midterm election, they are not violating federal criminal law even if a ballot belongs to a voter alleged to be ineligible. She required the administration to notify the court of any search warrants, grand jury subpoenas, or other demands for election materials connected to lists alleging voter ineligibility.
The emergency order, set to expire on November 16, was sought by a coalition of labor unions and civil-rights groups, including the NAACP and LULAC, who say the administration’s actions violate the Voting Rights Act and unlawfully intrude on state control of elections. The groups argue that a DHS data-matching program, which compares state voter lists with federal records, generates unreliable lists that wrongly accuse U.S. citizens of being noncitizens.
The ruling follows recent court decisions limiting the administration’s efforts to pressure states over alleged non-citizen voting. Federal law already requires jurisdictions to preserve election records for 22 months, and a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the administration lacks authority to interfere in state citizenship-verification processes.