Appeals Court Judges Voice Doubt Over Justice Department Suit Targeting California Mail-In Ballots

A United States appeals court has signaled skepticism toward a Justice Department lawsuit that seeks to compel California to throw out mail-in ballots the government believes are headed to noncitizens.

The three-judge panel heard a rare weekend oral argument on Sunday. Circuit Judge Mark Bennett, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, said the court would issue a decision as soon as possible. He also made clear that he had doubts about whether the case could withstand legal scrutiny.

Bennett pointed to the Elections Clause of the US Constitution, which gives states, rather than the federal government, the authority to run elections. He told Justice Department lawyer Matthew Donnelly that the request appeared to conflict with California law. "It seems to me that you want us to issue an injunction that is entirely inconsistent with the law that the California legislature has adopted pursuant to the Elections Clause," Bennett said. "How can we do that?"

The Justice Department filed its complaint on October 15, less than three weeks before the November 3 midterm elections. It asks the federal courts to set aside thousands of mail-in ballots that the government says were sent to "likely noncitizens." According to the lawsuit, the Trump administration gave California officials a list of 20,000 names of people it believes are ineligible to vote because of their citizenship status.

The case is part of a broader push by the administration to crack down on alleged noncitizen voting before the midterms, which will determine control of Congress as well as key state and local offices. Trump has repeatedly promoted the discredited claim that the Democratic Party benefits from widespread voting by noncitizens, and California has long been a target of his election misinformation. Earlier this year he denounced the state's primaries after candidates he favored, including Los Angeles mayoral hopeful Spencer Pratt, fell short of his expectations. "There's BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California," he wrote on social media, before announcing an investigation by the US Attorneys' Office.

Critics say the efforts are intended to suppress turnout through intimidation and confusion. Voting rights advocates have also warned that the administration has not publicly explained how it compiled its list of suspected noncitizen voters, and whistleblower reports have raised doubts about the accuracy of such lists.

California has responded that it has strong safeguards in place to keep noncitizens from voting and that the Justice Department's claims rest on dubious data. Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the lawsuit in a statement earlier this month. "This is a sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters just three weeks before Election Day," he said. "We will continue to carry out free and fair elections in the Golden State, and call out this authoritarian as he tries every play in the dictator's playbook."

Polls suggest Republican candidates face steep odds in the midterms, given Trump's declining approval ratings and public dissatisfaction over issues such as the cost of living and the US-Israel war on Iran.