Voter roll case closed: Trump officials tried to disrupt California elections, judge says

Sharon Bernstein, The Sacramento Bee on Nov 10, 2026

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A federal judge in Los Angeles on Tuesday canceled all future hearings and closed a hotly contested legal case that sought to force California to set aside ballots from some 20,000 people the Trump administration said were likely to be noncitizens.

But U.S. District Judge David Carter did not resist taking a final swipe at the Justice Department for filing the lawsuit, which was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (twice) and by the jurist’s own order.

“This lawsuit attempted to disrupt an ongoing election and create confusion and uncertainty for voters and election workers alike,” Carter wrote in a brief order issued from his chambers.

The case, which Carter said in an earlier ruling was part of a “broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference by federal officials,” was voluntarily dismissed by the administration on Friday. Attorneys for the Justice Department said the issue was no longer relevant because the election had passed and the Supreme Court had rejected its request.

Even so, the administration quickly pivoted, filing a brief in a related case that also made claims that California’s voter rolls contained noncitizens who voted illegally.

The now-closed lawsuit was one of several civil and criminal cases the government has pursued based on an admittedly inaccurate database it says includes the names of thousands of people who are registered to vote in California but may not be citizens.

The administration’s list is also the subject of cases filed by voting rights groups and others seeking to require the government to disclose more information about how it developed the database and where it obtained its information.

In the case closed Tuesday by Carter, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli said the Department of Homeland Security obtained portions of California’s voter registration roll from an undisclosed entity and used the legal service LexisNexis to search for Social Security numbers matching the names of people on the list.

Essayli and other Justice Department prosecutors in California used the list to develop criminal cases against 40 people they allege were noncitizens who registered or voted illegally.

The Justice Department’s case against California drew widespread attention, and the administration’s subsequent criminal charges based on its list were publicized at two press conferences. Hearings were packed with lawyers from federal, state and local governments, as well as civil rights groups that filed friend of the court briefs.

But no lawyers or members of the public were in chambers with Carter on Tuesday as he crafted his order, court documents show.

The judge had planned to hold an expedited hearing this coming Friday the veracity of the list, but that proceeding was among those he canceled on Tuesday.

“The right to vote is sacred,” Carter wrote in his final order. “So, too, is trust in our democracy. ... In light of the government’s withdrawal, this case is CLOSED.”

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