DOJ Drops California Ballot Suit After Supreme Court Rejection
US Justice Department moves to dismiss lawsuit seeking to sequester 20,000 CA ballots. Trump admin withdraws case after SCOTUS denial and GOP midterm losses.
POLICY WIRE — Los Angeles, USA — The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion on Friday to drop its own lawsuit targeting approximately 20,000 California mail-in ballots that officials alleged were cast by likely noncitizens.
The request to terminate the legal action arrives shortly after substantial defeats for Republican candidates in the recent midterm elections and approximately one week prior to a previously scheduled court hearing.
Earlier federal efforts by the Trump administration to isolate these specific ballots from the tallying process were consistently rebuffed by the federal judiciary, leading up to a final rejection by the Supreme Court.
The high court denied the administration’s emergency appeal to sequester the ballots in question of their immigration status prior to the election day count.
Lower federal judges had also challenged the legitimacy and methodology behind the list of individuals flagged for review, further undermining the basis for the DOJ’s original demand.
This dismissal concludes a contentious legal battle aimed at halting the counting of the contested votes until their holders could be verified as legal U.S. citizens.
Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)
