A U.S. judge strongly rebuked the Trump administration on Wednesday by rejecting a request by the Justice Department to temporarily block California from counting mail ballots for the midterm elections from more than 20,000 registered voters the department alleges are likely noncitizens.
The decision marks the latest setback for President Donald Trump's effort to boost the federal government's role in elections ahead of the November 3 midterms, with his Republican Party locked in a tight battle to retain control of both houses of Congress.
US District Judge David Carter issued the decision after a hearing on Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court over the Justice Department's request for a temporary restraining order barring officials from counting any ballots from the individuals it flagged.
The Justice Department's lawsuit, filed on October 15, was a rare intervention in the voting process weeks before an election and signaled the Trump administration's willingness to contest the midterm results in court.
"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," Carter wrote on Wednesday.