Appeals court dismisses Justice Department bid to make California set aside mail ballots

As of 8:57 a.m. ET, Oct. 27, 2026

A federal appeals court on Monday dismissed the Justice Department's emergency bid to force California and Los Angeles County to set aside mail ballots from more than 20,000 people the federal government identified as likely noncitizens, ruling 2-1 that it lacked jurisdiction over the appeal.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the United States "failed to allow the district court adequate opportunity to consider its application for a Temporary Restraining Order." The panel granted Los Angeles County's motion to dismiss the appeal and denied the government's emergency motion as moot, according to the unsigned order. Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez wrote concurrences; Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented.

The ruling sends the dispute back to U.S. District Judge David Carter in Los Angeles, who set a hearing on the government's request for Tuesday, Oct. 27, and has committed to ruling promptly afterward, the order said. The Nov. 3 election is a week away.

What the majority said

According to the order, the government asked the district court in its Oct. 21 filing for a ruling by Nov. 3. After the county disclosed that it had processed more than 331,000 mail ballots since Oct. 5, the government asked late that night for a ruling by noon Oct. 22, then appealed when none came, calling the court's inaction a "constructive denial."

"The United States's claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one," the majority wrote, citing the government's "own delay in filing suit" and in "communicating to the court its desired relief."

The dissent

Bumatay wrote that the appeals court had jurisdiction and that federal law preempts California's handling of the ballots. "We should've enjoined it from accepting and processing ballots likely cast by aliens until their citizenship could be verified," he wrote.

The underlying case

The Justice Department sued California on Oct. 15, alleging state officials are knowingly facilitating noncitizen voting by mailing ballots to all registered voters, as state law requires, and refusing to set aside ballots from people on a federal list, the order said. Those claims are allegations that have not been decided; California officials dispute them. GROKsiNEWS.com previously reported on the Justice Department's warning to Los Angeles election officials and on federal charges against 28 people in a separate California noncitizen-voting sweep.

What is not known

It is not known how Carter will rule after Tuesday's hearing, whether the Justice Department will seek further review, or how many of the ballots at issue have already been processed.