Supreme Court denies Trump administration's request to separate alleged non-citizen ballots in California

The Supreme Court on Monday denied an emergency petition from the Trump administration seeking to separate as many as 20,000 mail-in ballots in California that federal officials alleged might have been cast by non-citizens. The brief order provided no explanation and was issued without first soliciting California's response, a departure from the court's usual practice.

California election officials have opposed the Justice Department's intervention, noting that state law already prohibits non-citizens from voting and questioning the accuracy of the federal data. The administration has warned state officials of possible prosecution for allowing non-citizens to vote, a threat a federal judge recently ordered the Justice Department to cease.

While elections are administered by local authorities, the administration argues that a federal statute barring non-citizen voting gives it grounds to intervene. The claim that millions of non-citizens vote in U.S. elections has been repeatedly made without supporting evidence, and experts say such instances are rare.

Previous attempts to verify non-citizen registrations have encountered setbacks; for example, Nevada officials confirmed that individuals identified as non-citizens on a federal list were, in fact, citizens. In California, thousands of mail-in ballots have already been processed, and the verification process discards voter identification details after confirming signatures, making retroactive identification of alleged non-citizen votes impractical.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also rejected the administration's claim, finding no congressional intent for the federal non-citizen voting ban to override state election laws.