00:02With the midterms just days away, a federal judge has blocked the Trump administration's
00:06effort to set aside thousands of mail-in ballots in California. The Justice Department claims the
00:11voters may not be U.S. citizens, but the judge says the government hasn't made a credible case.
00:16In a ruling Wednesday, Judge David Carter rejected the administration's request to set
00:21aside ballots for more than 20,000 voters while their citizenship is checked.
00:25He says that would violate long-standing constitutional principles giving states
00:30control over their elections, and Carter didn't mince words. Carter wrote, quote,
00:34Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to
00:39coerce a state and local government to abandon their own constitutional elections procedures
00:44and bend to the will of the executive branch. He also warned the move would, quote,
00:49wreak havoc on voting that's already underway. And he questioned how the Justice Department put
00:54together its list of suspected non-citizens, saying the process wasn't credible.
00:59The Justice Department says it plans to appeal.
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