A federal judge issued an emergency order blocking the Justice Department from intimidating election officials or demanding that counties separate ballots.
A federal judge late Friday ordered the Trump administration to stop threatening California election officials with criminal prosecution and barred federal agents from demanding that counties set aside ballots from alleged noncitizens.
U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson issued an eight-page temporary restraining order after labor unions and other groups filed a lawsuit a day earlier. CBS News reported that the plaintiffs accused the federal government of intimidating election workers and interfering in the administration of next week’s midterm elections.
The decision follows a separate ruling on Wednesday in which a federal judge rejected a Trump administration bid to segregate California ballots, ruling that the government cannot force the state to set aside mail ballots from roughly 20,000 voters. Federal prosecutors appealed, but an appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s bid to halt California ballots earlier on Friday.
What the judge ordered
Thompson prohibited any action that threatens, intimidates, or coerces state or local election workers into halting the processing of ballots from registered voters simply because the administration claims those voters are ineligible. She determined that federal officials likely violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits attempting to intimidate or coerce anyone helping others vote. She also ruled that the administration had acted outside its legal and constitutional authority.
As NBC News reported, Thompson wrote that high-ranking officials from both the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security had run an intimidation campaign against workers administering the 2026 midterms. Thompson wrote that while the administration claims its actions aim to halt unlawful voting by noncitizens, “their actions are likely to have the effect of interfering with election administration and disenfranchising lawful voters.”
In addition to halting threats of criminal prosecution and blocking demands to separate ballots, the order requires the Justice Department to notify the court of any pending search warrant applications or subpoenas targeting election workers.
Months of federal pressure
Federal pressure in California expanded earlier in October when the DOJ sued California over voting rolls and sought to force local officials to separate mail ballots from roughly 20,000 voters it claims are not citizens. Federal authorities also issued grand jury subpoenas to election officials in Los Angeles County as part of the broader administration campaign.
Federal officials have suggested for months that election workers could face prosecution if they fail to stop noncitizens from voting. In July, Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, sent letters to all 50 states and Washington, D.C., threatening criminal prosecution of local election officials. Those letters warned administrators of criminal penalties for failing to comply with voting records retention requirements. The department followed up with demands for lists containing the names of voters federal officials suspected of being noncitizens.
What happens next
Thompson’s temporary restraining order remains in effect through Nov. 16, nearly two weeks after Election Day. She scheduled the next court hearing in the case for Nov. 13.
California is not the only state facing federal pressure over voter rolls. The administration has also pushed to require election workers in Washington state to segregate ballots from suspected noncitizens, and that legal challenge remains pending in federal court.
