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Appeals court rejects Trump admin's voting lawsuit against California

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Mallin, A. (2026, October 26). Appeals court rejects Trump admin's voting lawsuit against California. ABC News (US). https://abcnews.com/Politics/appeals-court-rejects-trump-admins-voting-lawsuit-california/story?id=137586284

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ABC News (US) · collected 2026-10-27 · by Alexander Mallin

Quick Summary

A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected the Trump administration’s request for an immediate order demanding California separate approximately 20,000 mail-in ballots from individuals suspected of being non-citizens. The court ruled that it lacks jurisdiction at this stage and sent the case back to a district court, which will hear the matter on Tuesday.
Written by AI on 2026-10-30, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

As of October 29, 2026, U.S. District Judge David Carter denied the Trump administration's request to invalidate over 20,000 ballots in California, which it alleged were cast by noncitizens. The Justice Department had sued California on October 15 after sending a list of suspected noncitizens to Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan earlier that week, demanding they confirm the citizenship status of those individuals.

The lawsuit was part of broader efforts by the Trump administration to challenge voting practices ahead of midterm elections. Despite these attempts, courts have twice rejected federal bids to block ballot counting. The Justice Department has appealed this decision. Additionally, local election officials in California received subpoenas from the administration as it launched a criminal investigation into alleged voter fraud.

Judge Carter's ruling characterized the Justice Department’s actions as an attempt at "election interference," stating that using unsubstantiated data to disenfranchise eligible voters undermines American democracy.

Written for “Trump Loses Election Challenges in California” on 2026-10-30, grounded in this article and the 58 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The article's own words the score was based on. Each is quoted verbatim and was checked against the article text before being stored, so you can find it in the original.
Reading Leans left (beta estimate) Confidence high
Leaning: leans left for article 109042 (high confidence, 2 verified quotes) · logged 2026-10-30

Story

📰 Trump Loses Election Challenges in California
Politics · 59 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans left and hedges 25% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
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⚖️ Leans strongly left further left than this Hedges 2 of 17 claims Outlet record 70/100
“Article A describes Democrats filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over alleged election interference, while Article B reports an appeals court's decision regarding a separate voting-related lawsuit brought by the DOJ against California.”
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“The articles describe different legal actions taken by different courts at distinct times and stages of litigation.”
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How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
4
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
25%
1 of 4 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
70/100
ABC News (US)'s corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
59
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-30 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

ABC News (US) · 1243 article(s) · 3 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 3 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

Alexander Mallin
17 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 "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," U.S .District Judge David Carter wrote in his Wednesday order.
2026-10-29 · assertive framing · Judge rejects Trump admin request for order to segregate 20,000 Calif. ballots
🔮 Bill Essayli, a controversial Trump-installed leader of the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California, argued in the hearing that the administration was simply pushing for the state to be in compliance with federal law barring non-citizens from casting votes. But state officials and other legal advocates opposing the DOJ lawsuit countered that the litigation violated longstanding Constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections -- and could have chaotic consequences for the state in tabulating final vote counts in the weeks ahead.
2026-10-28 · mixed framing · Judge to appoint special master in California voting case in setback to Trump admin
🔮 I'm frustrated that I got it in the middle of the night, but I'm much more concerned that it's filed on the public record." The assistant U.S. attorney in the hearing, John Borchert, struggled repeatedly as Faruqui asked him to explain the government's conduct, which the judge said was unlike any case he had ever seen in the history of D.C.'s district court. Faruqui ultimately granted the request from Flores' and Benavides' attorneys to strike the amended complaint from the docket and said he would continue Tuesday's hearing to determine whether prosecutors established probable cause in their initial complaint filed last week. "Why today on this one case have you changed the entire history of how you charge cases?" Faruqui asked of Borchert.
2026-10-27 · assertive framing · FBI agents charged with lying about Hunter Biden probes accuse DOJ of 'serious abuse'
🔮 She could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.
2026-10-27 · assertive framing · DOJ fails to get indictment against ex-Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson: Sources
🔮 "The United States seeks a court order to prevent Defendants from certifying the result of the November 2026 United States Senate election if '(1) [Dan S.] Sullivan does not win the election; and (2) had all votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan been cast instead for [Dan S.] Sullivan and Alaska's rank-choice process played out accordingly, [Dan S.] Sullivan would have won the election.'"
2026-10-27 · assertive framing · Judge appears skeptical of DOJ's legal maneuvering in Alaska lawsuit
🔮 Appeals court rejects Trump admin's voting lawsuit against California The court sent the suit back to a district court, which will hear it on Tuesday.
2026-10-27 · mixed framing · Appeals court rejects Trump admin's voting lawsuit against California
🔮 During a press conference on Monday, Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter attracted some scrutiny when he acknowledged that the administration's list likely included errors, and that "there may be some names on there who it turns out ultimately are citizens.
2026-10-21 · assertive framing · 'High percentage' of DOJ's noncitizen voters list was born in US: LA County analysis
🔮 In a follow-up post resharing the letter, Trump wrote "They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!"
2026-10-17 · assertive framing · Trump administration threatens to prosecute local California election workers
🔮 Former special counsel Jack Smith is set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to defend his two criminal investigations of President Donald Trump amid growing calls from Republicans that Smith himself face prosecution by Trump's Justice Department.
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🔮 The 2 1/2-hour hearing was heart wrenching as family members of the 13 service members killed in the 2021 attack took to the podium to tearfully plead for Judge Trenga to sentence Sharifullah to the maximum prison time of 20 years behind bars. "No justice will be enough to mend my broken heart," said Paula Knauss, the mother of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss.
2026-09-16 · assertive framing · Afghan man tied to Abbey Gate bombing sentenced to 20 years for supporting ISIS
Also by Alexander Mallin
Judge rejects Trump admin request for order to segregate 20,000 Calif. ballots
2026-10-29 · ABC News (US)
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2026-10-28 · ABC News (US)
Judge to appoint special master in California voting case in setback to Trump admin
2026-10-28 · ABC News (US)
DOJ fails to get indictment against ex-Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson: Sources
2026-10-27 · ABC News (US)
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 17 articles by Alexander Mallin →

Topics

California Circuit Court of Appeals DOJ Trump the Justice Department

Subjects

California GPE · 2× Trump PERSON · 2× Circuit Court of Appeals ORG · 1× DOJ ORG · 1× the Justice Department ORG · 1×

Narrative

The 2-1 ruling from the panel said the appeals court lacks jurisdiction at this stage in the litigation, punting it back to district court which has a hearing set for Tuesday afternoon on the DOJ's lawsuit.
framing: mixed · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-30
🔮 Appeals court rejects Trump admin's voting lawsuit against California The court sent the suit back to a district court, which will hear it on Tuesday.
2026-10-30 · ABC News (US)
Appeals court rejects Trump admin's voting lawsuit against California · mixed framing

Claims (4 extracted, 1 hedged)

Appeals court rejects Trump admin's voting lawsuit against California The court sent the suit back to a district court, which will hear it on Tuesday. asserted
which → reject → Tuesday
A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Monday rejected a request from the Justice Department for an immediate order demanding California segregate roughly 20,000 mail-in ballots from individuals the Trump administration claims are likely non-citizens. uncertain
administration → reject → individuals
The 2-1 ruling from the panel said the appeals court lacks jurisdiction at this stage in the litigation, punting it back to district court which has a hearing set for Tuesday afternoon on the DOJ's lawsuit. asserted
which → say → lawsuit
This is a developing story. asserted
This → develop → ?
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