Supreme Court rejects Trump’s effort to force California to separate mail ballots from alleged noncitizens

Updated on: November 2, 2026 / 6:03 PM EST / CBS News

Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a last-ditch effort from the Trump administration to require California to separate mail ballots received from thousands of people that it claims are not U.S. citizens.

The court said in a one line, unsigned order that it was denying the Justice Department's request for an injunction requiring election officials from California to set aside the ballots from 20,000 alleged noncitizens. There were no noted dissents.

The Supreme Court acted only on the Trump administration's request for emergency relief and did not ask the California election officials to respond before ruling.

The Justice Department sought the Supreme Court's intervention earlier in the day after a divided federal appeals court refused to order California election workers to set aside mail ballots cast by people on a government list of "likely" noncitizens.

A U.S. district judge, David Carter, last week rebuffed the Justice Department's request for a temporary restraining order that would've required ballots received from those on the list to be segregated and said the Trump administration's process for identifying the alleged noncitizens was "rife with uncertainty and errors."

The dispute…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/