The Trump administration voluntarily dropped its high-profile United States lawsuit against California over election procedures following a string of legal defeats.
The core dispute:
The Justice Department had demanded that California and Los Angeles County review and set aside roughly 20,000 ballots cast by individuals the administration flagged as suspected noncitizens, arguing they should not be counted until citizenship could be verified.
US District Judge David Carter had appeared skeptical of the Justice Department’s lawsuit, expressing concerns that the request could disenfranchise and confuse legitimate voters, calling it a “monumental change” to election procedures when voting was already underway.
DOJ had argued in previous filings that it needed quick action from federal courts because the contested ballots could not be separated from all other votes once they were accepted.
The department again pointed to that reasoning in Friday’s notice of dismissal, writing that “the relief the United States sought is no longer available” now that votes have been tallied.
California officials refused, and the federal government subsequently sued.
Supreme Court rejection:
On the eve of the election, the U.S. Supreme Court summarily rejected the Trump administration’s emergency appeal to force California to segregate those ballots.
Lower courts—including U.S. District Judge David O. Carter and a 9th Circuit panel—had similarly ruled against the administration, with Judge Carter calling the effort an unprecedented and likely unconstitutional executive branch intervention in state election procedures.
Voluntary dismissal:
With the emergency appeals exhausted and a scheduled federal court hearing no longer able to provide the pre-election relief prosecutors originally sought, the U.S. Department of Justice moved to formally dismiss the lawsuit.
Concurrently, related legal challenges from labor and voting rights groups regarding federal threats of criminal prosecution against election workers were also resolved or dropped.
