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Judge rebuffs Trump DoJ’s bid to order California to set aside 20,000 ballots

Read the original at The Guardian ↗
Cite

Levine, S. (2026, October 29). Judge rebuffs Trump DoJ’s bid to order California to set aside 20,000 ballots. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/28/federal-judge-trump-california-ballots

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

The Guardian · collected 2026-10-29 · by Sam Levine

Quick Summary

Federal judge David Carter rejected a request from the Trump administration's Justice Department to isolate approximately 20,000 ballots in California from individuals claimed to be non-citizens. This ruling came two weeks after the Justice Department delivered a USB drive containing this list of names to election officials, who had only 48 hours to review it before facing legal action if they did not comply. Judge Carter's decision emphasizes the right of citizens to vote freely and criticizes the federal government for attempting to coerce states into altering their election procedures under political pressure.
Written by AI on 2026-10-29, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

On October 26, 2026, federal appellate judges questioned the Justice Department's demand for California to set aside 20,000 mail ballots from people suspected of not being U.S. citizens. The panel expressed doubt about the timing and constitutionality of this request during a rare weekend hearing. Despite initial setbacks, on November 2, Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to stop demanding California officials set aside these ballots, delivering another setback to the DOJ's election oversight efforts. However, in an unusual legal twist, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals briefly lifted and then restored a block on the investigation into noncitizen voting in California hours before polls opened on November 3, setting up further legal battles.

Written for “Appeals Court Rejects DOJ Bid” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 42 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Appeals Court Rejects DOJ Bid
Politics · 43 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 11% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Fox News
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 1 of 20 claims Outlet record 68/100
The Straits Times
Hedges 3 of 26 claims Outlet record 66/100
CBS News
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 5 of 41 claims Outlet record 65/100
Washington Examiner
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 1 of 3 claims Outlet record 69/100
The Straits Times
Hedges 2 of 18 claims Outlet record 66/100
Toronto Star
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 0 of 2 claims Outlet record 64/100
NBC News
Hedges 3 of 31 claims Outlet record 78/100
ABC News (US)
Hedges 0 of 3 claims Outlet record 67/100
NPR
⚖️ Leans strongly left Hedges 4 of 27 claims Outlet record 60/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
18
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
11%
2 of 18 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
66/100
The Guardian's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
43
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-29 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Guardian · 2969 article(s) · 6 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 6 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Sam Levine
11 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Had the districts been in place in 2024, Donald Trump would have won all but one by double digits.
🔮 A change in House control would give Democrats a perch to conduct robust oversight of the administration for its final two years.
🔮 The justice department has sent letters to a top Democratic election lawyer and other Democrats informing them they could be targets in a federal investigation into efforts to get an Alaska man with the same name as Republican senator Daniel Sullivan on to the ballot.
🔮 Donald Trump is waging a brazen effort to interfere with voting in this year’s midterm elections, escalating concerns that the federal government will try to slow down certification of election results – a strategy that could create chaos when the new Congress is seated next year.
🔮 “Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch.”
🔮 The department sent the county and California secretary of state the list last week and gave them a 48-hour deadline to segregate ballots cast from anyone on the list unless they could verify their citizenship.
🔮 The department asked officials to confirm the citizenship of anyone on the list and set aside ballots from those whose status could not be confirmed.
🔮 Voters could say they needed an overseas ballot because they were on active military service, living outside the US with an intent to return, or living outside the US and uncertain about their return.
🔮 Follow-up letters to each of those states weakened the claim, saying there only could be as many as 278,000 non-citizens on the rolls, including up to 15,903 in Nevada.
🔮 The reported meeting comes months ahead of the November midterm elections in which Democrats are favored to retake the US House, a development that would make Jeffries speaker.
Also by Sam Levine
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 11 articles by Sam Levine →

Topics

American California DHS Los Angeles Sacramento

Subjects

California GPE · 5× Carter PERSON · 5× American NORP · 2× DHS ORG · 2× Los Angeles GPE · 2× Trump PERSON · 2× Bill Clinton PERSON · 1× David Carter PERSON · 1× Sacramento GPE · 1× the Executive Branch ORG · 1×

Narrative

The ruling from US district judge David Carter, nominated to the federal bench by Bill Clinton, comes about two weeks after the justice department delivered a USB drive to election officials in Los Angeles and Sacramento that it said contained the names of 20,000 non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-29
🔮 “Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch.”

Claims (18 extracted, 2 hedged)

A federal judge declined to order California election officials to segregate ballots from people the Trump administration claimed were non-citizens, rebuffing a legally thin request from the justice department that appeared designed to cast doubt over the results of the midterms. asserted
that → decline → midterms
The ruling from US district judge David Carter, nominated to the federal bench by Bill Clinton, comes about two weeks after the justice department delivered a USB drive to election officials in Los Angeles and Sacramento that it said contained the names of 20,000 non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls. asserted
it → nominate → rolls
There are more than 23 million registered voters in California and non-citizen voting is extremely rare. asserted
voting → be → California
“This case is about the right of every American citizen to vote in a free and fair election,” Carter wrote in his Wednesday evening ruling. asserted
Carter → vote → ruling
“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch.” asserted
government → seek → Branch
“In bringing this lawsuit, the Executive would have this Court believe that it reigns as a sole sovereign,” Carter continued. asserted
Carter → bring → sovereign
The justice department gave officials just 48 hours to review the list and said it would sue the state if officials did not sequester ballots from those whose citizenship it could not confirm. uncertain
it → give → citizenship
The department refused to provide more details about its methodology and Los Angeles officials found preliminary indicators the list was inaccurate. asserted
list → refuse → indicators
The justice department then sued California on 15 October to try and force the state to sequester the ballots and verify citizenship. asserted
department → sue → citizenship
The justice department separately has threatened to prosecute election officials in the state if they tabulate ballots from non-citizens. asserted
they → threaten → citizens
Such a move would be without a legal basis, Sam Trepel, a former prosecutor at the justice department, wrote in a blogpost this month. asserted
Trepel → write → blogpost
After filing the lawsuit, the Trump administration began providing lists to other counties of suspected non-citizen voters. asserted
administration → file → voters
When election officials began reviewing them, they found the department had flagged voters who were not on the rolls and had provided insufficient information to verify their citizenship status, according to CalMatters. uncertain
who → begin → CalMatters
Carter’s ruling came after the justice department tried to bypass him entirely. asserted
department → come → him
After Carter set a 27 October hearing on the justice department’s emergency motion, the department took the unusual step of appealing to the US court of appeals for the ninth circuit, saying Carter was not considering the case fast enough. asserted
Carter → set → case
A panel of ninth circuit judges ruled 2-1 against the justice department earlier this week. asserted
panel → rule → department
In July, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it had identified up to 190,000 non-citizens on California voter rolls. asserted
it → announce → rolls
The DHS did not provide more details to the state until after ballots had already gone out in the state. asserted
ballots → provide → state
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