U.S. vs. California: a court ruling that sends a strong message

Two rulings that rebuked the federal government, from two different courts, in three days. On Monday October 26, the Ninth Circuit — including two Trump-appointed judges — threw out the U.S. Justice Department’s emergency appeal to force Los Angeles County to set aside the ballots of more than 20,000 voters. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Carter issued another ruling against the DOJ, in a strongly-worded decision: 

“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch.”

I was in the courtroom in LA during the hearing that led to this ruling. It was chilling to hear the U.S. Department of Justice openly repeat its threat to criminally prosecute local election officials in court — after sending intimidating letters similar to the ones it sent California and LA County to 58 other counties. This was so egregious that the judge admonished the federal government to stop the threats during the hearing, and he included another warning in his written order (“The court reiterates what it said yesterday: these threats must stop”).

Judge Carter found the DOJ’s list of supposed “likely noncitizens” was not credible and that the federal government had no power to upend the detailed state and federal laws already in place to protect our elections. His ruling also called out the federal government’s “broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference.”

This is an important recognition of what we argued in court and have noted for the past year: the federal government is trying to claim power it doesn’t have in order to sow chaos and interfere with how local governments run elections. 

The full order is available here.

What’s next 

The DOJ has already appealed this order to the Ninth Circuit, so this is, of course, not the end of this case. We will defend LA County all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. We’re also coordinating with counties across California, and we’ll continue to stand with the election officials across the country doing their jobs under immense pressure and intimidation.

The pace is only picking up as Election Day nears, and this is exactly what we’ve prepared for: the federal administration throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. Despite its attempts to sow chaos and election mistrust, election officials, who have been preparing all year, are staying the course.

What we’ve seen so far is that early voting is proceeding without significant disruption and ballots are being counted. Behind the scenes is an enormous amount of planning and teamwork that ensures counties are ready for any eventuality. A ruling as strong as the one issued by the federal court yesterday is heartening as we enter the final stretch until Election Day.

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