Inset: President Donald Trump listens during an event to announce the Freedom Haulers initiative at the White House, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon). Background: The Supreme Court is seen on the morning after the conservative majority sided with the Trump administration in a case over President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026 (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite).
On the eve of the midterm elections, the Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to order California to “segregate” 20,000 mail-in ballots, not based on conclusive proof of unlawful voting but on the government’s claims of “likely noncitizens.”
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer’s latest application for Supreme Court intervention in the 2026 elections comes after two losses at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is why Trump-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay’s dissents loom so large.
The 9th Circuit, in back-to-back 2-1 decisions, rejected the administration’s claimed power to “take charge of or intervene in a state’s administration of an ongoing election.” But Bumatay each time said a “limited” injunction to segregate the ballots would be appropriate to “allow time to verify the eligibility of suspected noncitizens.”
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“To be sure, California and the United States disagree about the likely unlawfulness of the ballots at issue. ‘These dueling allegations can and should be investigated,'” the DOJ wrote, citing a dissent by Bumatay. “In the meantime, however, an interim injunction is necessary ‘to preserve the relative positions of the parties until a trial on the merits can be held.'”
The government said that “likely noncitizen” voter claims should be enough for the Supreme Court to issue that injunction.
“This Court should issue an injunction, pending the United States’ appeal to the Ninth Circuit and any subsequent proceedings in this Court, that requires California to segregate mail ballots from persons whom the United States has identified as likely noncitizens,” the application stated. “The Court should also enter an administrative injunction to that effect while it considers this application.”
At the district court level, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, a Bill Clinton appointee, refused to issue the restraining order the government asked for and instead said he would appoint a special master to review the evidence.
Separately, the NAACP has asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to swiftly restrain the administration from intimidating voters and election workers at the polls. A hearing on the motion is set for Monday afternoon.
The post ‘An interim injunction is necessary’: Trump DOJ says SCOTUS must force California to ‘segregate mail ballots,’ shrugs off back-to-back losses first appeared on Law & Crime.
