Judge blocks Justice Department from pressuring California election officials
A California federal judge has ordered the US government to stop intimidating election officials. The Justice Department has already filed an appeal.
A US federal judge has ordered the government of President Donald Trump to stop intimidating election officials. The officials had refused to follow Justice Department instructions on handling ballots for the midterm elections on November 3. Judge Trina Thompson of California found that the conduct likely violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In July, the Justice Department sent letters to all 50 states. They stated that election officials who knowingly allowed non-citizens to take part in the election could face criminal prosecution. Last month, the agency also contacted counties in California. They were asked to identify illegal aliens on voter rolls, otherwise legal action would follow. The demands came at a time when preparations for the midterm elections were already in full swing.
On Friday, Thompson ruled that the government was acting beyond its constitutional powers. The Voting Rights Act expressly prohibits threatening, intimidating or coercing persons who take part in conducting elections. The defendants argued that their actions were meant to prevent unlawful votes by non-citizens. The judge countered that their measures were capable of disrupting the conduct of the election and depriving lawful voters of their right to vote. On that basis, she barred the government from continuing to act in this way.
The temporary injunction remains in effect until November 16, nearly two weeks after Tuesday's election day. It stems from a lawsuit that unions and other groups had filed just one day earlier. They accuse the government of interfering in the organization of the midterm elections. The case is therefore not only a legal dispute over individual letters but touches on the question of who bears responsibility for election administration in the states.
The Justice Department has since challenged the decision before the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California. A spokesperson for the agency said the judge issued an order against the federal government without waiting for its response. In other cases, the ministry's urgent election-related requests were, by contrast, delayed until after election day. The agency thus appears to see itself at a disadvantage, as courts treat its emergency applications differently.
Already on Friday, the government had also lost an earlier decision by another federal judge. That judge had declined to require California to block more than 20,000 ballots of suspected non-citizens. He justified this by saying such a step would violate the constitutional principle that the states control their own elections.
The dispute falls in a period in which the midterm elections have already begun. According to the average of national polls by NBC News, published on Sunday, 52 percent of Americans prefer a Congress controlled by the Democrats, while 44 percent prefer one dominated by Republicans. How the ongoing proceedings might affect the outcome of the election cannot be assessed with the information available.
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