Attorney General Bonta: Trump Administration Throws in the Towel, Drops Baseless Lawsuit Seeking to Disrupt California Elections

OAKLAND - California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced that the Trump Administration has dropped its lawsuit seeking to force California election officials to set aside and not count mail-in ballots that may be cast by a list of approximately 20,000 individuals it "believes" are "likely" noncitizens. After four consecutive court losses, the U.S. Department of Justice chose to voluntarily dismiss its case rather than face a court-ordered evidentiary hearing before Judge David Carter next Friday, November 13, to scrutinize the reliability of its list. Courts in other cases have raised concerns about the reliability of similar lists, and a U.S. Department of Justice attorney in another case recently acknowledged that its lists have a "high error rate."

"Next week, the Trump Administration would have faced tough questions in court about its list of suspected noncitizens. Rather than face that scrutiny, it chose to drop its case," said Attorney General Bonta. "After four court defeats in just one week, including at the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal government has now thrown in the towel. California stood firm and prevailed, and the nationwide election results made clear that Americans overwhelmingly reject the Trump Administration's anti-democratic agenda. California will always stand up for our democracy and the rule of law."

The U.S. Constitution gives States and Congress - not the President or the Executive Branch - the authority to regulate the time, place, and manner of elections. The Trump Administration's repeated attempts to undermine that constitutional authority were decisively rejected by four courts in one week:

• Monday, October 26: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed the federal government's first emergency appeal after it attempted to bypass the district court.
• Wednesday, October 28: The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California denied the Administration's request for a temporary restraining order.
• Friday, October 30: The Ninth Circuit denied the Administration's emergency motion for an injunction pending appeal.
• Monday, November 2: The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Administration's emergency application seeking to force California election officials to segregate and not count any of the mail-in ballots at issue.