Photo: Marincyclist, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File photo of the federal courthouse in San Francisco, not a photo of Friday's hearing.
A federal judge in San Francisco on Friday barred the Trump administration from threatening state and local election officials with criminal prosecution if they refuse to go along with its crackdown on alleged voting by noncitizens, issuing an emergency order just four days before the November 3 midterm elections.
U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson granted a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit brought by election workers' unions and civil rights groups, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the NAACP. The case is SEIU v. U.S. Department of Justice, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The order bars the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from threatening election officials with prosecution for refusing administration demands tied to its lists of alleged noncitizen voters. It also bars the agencies from demanding that officials remove voters from registration rolls, refuse ballots to specific voters, segregate ballots cast in the midterms, or halt ballot processing on the basis of those lists. The order further bars actions intended to "threaten, intimidate or coerce" officials into changing ballot-processing procedures.
Why the judge acted now
Thompson ruled that the balance of interests favoured the plaintiffs, writing: "Because the public has a paramount interest in ensuring that election officials and workers are able to carry out their work in accordance with federal law and election procedure, and the official day of the Elections is only a couple of days away, the balance of the equities and public interest weigh in Plaintiffs' favor."
She also rejected the administration's framing of the crackdown. "Although Defendants claim that their actions are designed to halt unlawful voting by noncitizens, their actions are likely to have the effect of interfering with election administration and disenfranchising lawful voters," she wrote.
The judge ruled without hearing from the department first, according to the Associated Press, reflecting the emergency nature of the request days before Election Day. The Justice Department had no immediate comment on the ruling, Reuters reported.
What the order requires
The temporary restraining order runs until 5 p.m. on November 16. It requires the departments to notify every government that received their ballot letters that the threats are blocked, and requires the Justice Department to disclose any pending search warrant applications or grand jury subpoenas tied to its voter lists.
The department must respond by noon on Monday, and a hearing on a longer-term preliminary injunction is set for November 13. The order is a temporary emergency block, not a final judgment on the merits of the case.
Thompson, who was appointed to the bench by former President Joe Biden, ordered that election workers who follow the law do not violate federal criminal law even if a particular ballot belongs to a registered voter the administration alleges is ineligible to vote.
The wider election crackdown
The ruling lands in the middle of the administration's aggressive pre-election push on noncitizen voting, which has included pressing states for voter-registration data, issuing grand jury subpoenas to state and local election offices, and charging 156 immigrants with voting or registering to vote unlawfully, according to the Justice Department.
In California, a federal appeals court has twice this week rejected the department's requests to temporarily block the counting of mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters the administration alleges are likely noncitizens. In Alaska, the department has pressed a lawsuit seeking to block certification of the Senate race if the Republican incumbent loses.
This order is also separate from a different ruling on Friday, in New York, in which a federal judge ordered the administration to pull three taxpayer-funded advertisements from television, government websites and social media.
Critics, including election officials from both parties, have described the administration's moves as federal overreach into elections that the Constitution leaves states to administer. The administration says stricter measures are needed to ensure election security and public confidence in the vote. Studies have repeatedly found that voting by noncitizens is rare and has no effect on election outcomes.
What happens next
The midterms on Tuesday will decide whether Republicans keep their narrow majorities in the House and Senate in the final two years of President Donald Trump's presidency. More than 44 million Americans had already voted as of Thursday evening, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab.
Whether the administration complies immediately, seeks emergency relief from an appeals court, or presses its parallel criminal probes after Election Day will determine how much practical effect the order has. For now, election officials heading into the final weekend of voting have a court order telling them they cannot be prosecuted for counting ballots as the law requires.
Sources: Reuters; News18; Workers Rights News (citing the Associated Press and the court order).