A federal appeals court declined to intervene in the Trump administration’s lawsuit against California to sequester 20,000 mail-in ballots from individuals it suspects are noncitizens.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an emergency application last week to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, asking it to block California from counting the ballots, but a three-judge panel handed down a 2–1 decision Monday, citing lack of jurisdiction to rule on the matter because a lower district court had not yet issued its ruling.
The federal appeals court dismissed the DOJ’s emergency motion and remanded the matter back to the lower court, which is scheduled to hold a hearing on Oct. 27….