A US judge has ordered the Trump administration to stop demanding that California election officials segregate ballots cast by people on its lists of suspected noncitizens.
The ruling on Monday by US District Judge James Boasberg comes a day before the midterm elections, with President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans battling to maintain majorities in both houses of congress.
Boasberg found that the lists the administration had compiled were flawed, and included many people who were wrongly listed as noncitizens.
“California may decide for itself what procedures to use for verifying the citizenship of registered voters,” wrote Boasberg, who is based in Washington and was appointed by Democratic president Barack Obama.
“The Executive Branch lacks authority to unilaterally impose its preferred procedures.”
In a lawsuit, an immigrant rights group challenged the Justice Department’s authority to threaten county-level election officials in California with legal action for failing to review lists of possible noncitizens and to remove them from their voter rolls.
The group, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said the administration’s actions threatened to unlawfully disenfranchise recently naturalised US citizens, given the possibility that they could be incorrectly identified as noncitizens.
Boasberg agreed that the lists the administration had compiled were flawed.
The judge also said the Justice Department was acting outside the scope of its legal authority, since the US Constitution assigns the role of administering federal elections to the states.
“California may decide for itself what procedures to use for verifying the citizenship of registered voters,” wrote Boasberg.
“The executive branch lacks authority to unilaterally impose its preferred procedures.”
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