Supreme Court rejects Justice Department bid to set aside 20,000 California mail ballots

The Supreme Court on Monday evening denied the Justice Department's last-minute request to temporarily block California from counting the mail-in ballots of about 20,000 voters the department suggested may not be U.S. citizens, CNBC reported. Bloomberg and The Washington Post also reported the denial.

The order was unsigned and one sentence long. According to CNBC, the application went first to Associate Justice Elena Kagan, who referred it to the full court. No justice's reasoning was published in the order.

How the case got here

• Oct. 15: The Justice Department sued California in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, asking that ballots from voters on a federal list be set aside until citizenship was confirmed.
• Last Wednesday: Judge David Carter refused. He wrote that the case was about "the right of every American citizen to vote in a free and fair election," and that "California and its people are sovereign, too." The district court found the government lacked standing to bring the suit.
• Friday: A three-judge 9th Circuit panel upheld that ruling 2-1. The majority, Judges Mark Bennett (appointed by President Trump) and Gabriel Sanchez (appointed by President Biden), wrote that granting the request carried "a material risk" of disenfranchisement.
• Monday morning: Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the Supreme Court to step in, arguing the government had identified more than 20,000 registrants in California who "appear" to be registered "but who, in the United States' view, are likely not U.S. citizens," and that once ballots are commingled "there is no way to get the challenged ballots back."

We covered the filing earlier today: Trump administration asks Supreme Court to set aside 20,000 California mail ballots.

What the ruling does and does not settle

The order denies temporary relief. It does not decide whether any of the 20,000 people are citizens, and the lower courts' findings stand. The Justice Department's figure is its own characterization; California officials have disputed it.

CNBC also noted that on Sunday a federal judge dismissed a separate Justice Department suit that sought to stop Alaska from certifying its U.S. Senate result if the race turned on voter confusion over a similarly named candidate. Our earlier report has the details.

What to watch

Polls open Tuesday for the midterms that decide control of both chambers of Congress. California counts mail ballots over several days, so close races there may not be called on election night. For markets and businesses, the practical point is timing: a slow count can mean a slow answer on who controls Congress, which is the input traders and owners are waiting on. See our US news page for updates.

Sources: CNBC; Bloomberg, The Washington Post and NCPR for confirmation of the order. This is news reporting, not legal advice.