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A federal appeals court has ordered California to respond by noon Saturday to the Trump administration’s emergency request for about 20,000 mail-in ballots sent to people the Justice Department suspects are noncitizens ahead of the midterm elections.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued the order Friday evening after the DOJ filed an emergency request earlier in the day seeking a ruling by Saturday.
The Justice Department requested emergency relief from the appeals court after U.S. District Judge David Carter failed to rule within the deadline previously requested by the department.
The DOJ is asking California election officials to set aside ballots associated with people on its list while their eligibility is reviewed, rather than allowing the ballots to be processed alongside other votes.
DOJ GIVES CALIFORNIA 48 HOURS TO REVIEW LIST OF POSSIBLE NON-CITIZENS ON VOTER ROLLS
California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks about the Election Rigging Response Act during a press conference at the Democracy Center, Japanese American National Museum, August 14, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
In its emergency filing, the DOJ emphasized the urgency of its request.
“This is an emergency,” says the filing submitted by Attorney General Todd Blanche and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.
“Every minute of processing that occurs without separating ballots from presumed ineligible voters results in untraceable disenfranchisement and dilution of the votes of U.S. citizens,” the filing continues.
Despite the Ninth Circuit’s order, a hearing before Judge Carter remains scheduled for Tuesday, according to Fox News’ Matt Finn. It is still not known whether the court of appeal will rule before this hearing.
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Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, appears during a news conference at the Spring Street Courthouse on August 13, 2026. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Essayli previously told Fox News Digital that federal investigators had evidence showing 20,000 people received mail-in ballots in October.
His office sued California last week seeking a court order preventing the counting of ballots returned by those people.
“We are not asking California to take drastic action other than confiscating the ballots of suspected non-citizens,” Essayli said in an interview Wednesday. “We think it’s a minimum of 20,000 people. That’s the floor.”
Essayli also clashed this week with California Gov. Gavin Newsom on social media over state safeguards against non-citizen voting.
Essayli accused California of allowing non-citizens to register to vote because of what he described as inadequate citizenship verification procedures, while Newsom defended the integrity of the state’s elections and maintained that California was following the law.
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In this photo, an official absentee ballot, mailed to a Southern California resident before the general election, is seen October 17, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Jay L Clendenin/Getty Images)
California election officials have rejected the Justice Department’s requests.
In their court filings, they argued that county election offices did not have the authority or access to federal records necessary to verify voters’ citizenship status.
They also said it would be impossible to separate ballots associated with people on the DOJ list in cases where the ballots have already been processed.
California officials say that once a mail-in ballot’s signature is verified, the ballot is separated from its identification envelope and processed with other ballots.
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Officials have already processed 331,000 ballots in Los Angeles County alone, according to court records.
Friday’s escalation comes after Essayli’s office initially filed a complaint on Oct. 15, about two weeks after California began mailing ballots.
James Cirrone of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
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