A federal appeals court has left in place restrictions on part of the Trump administration's voter fraud investigations in nine states through Tuesday's midterm elections, rejecting another attempt to lift an order limiting federal agents' field operations and interviews involving actual or suspected U.S. citizens. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Friday declined to have a larger group of its judges reconsider a three-judge panel's refusal to stay the preliminary injunction. Seven judges dissented from the decision not to rehear the matter, arguing that the lower court had improperly constrained the executive branch's authority to investigate suspected illegal voting.
The restrictions apply in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin. According to the seven-judge dissent, six of those states were identified in the record as part of the Department of Homeland Security's enforcement campaign, while three others were identified through media reports. The decision is one of several recent legal setbacks for the administration's escalating push against alleged noncitizen voting in the closing days before the midterms.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has brought election-related charges around the country, while federal immigration agents have been sent to homes to investigate suspected illegal voting. Newsweek reached out Saturday to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment on the ruling.
The case, California Nurses Association v. Mullin, was brought in September by the California Nurses Association, National Nurses United, Voto Latino Foundation, Santa Clara County and the City and County of San Francisco against DHS, immigration agencies and federal officials. The nursing organizations said U.S.-citizen members feared being wrongly identified, investigated or detained under the federal initiative and had curtailed election-related activities as a result.
The district court found at this preliminary stage that the organizations likely had standing to sue on their members' behalf. The plaintiffs argued that the administration's investigation of potential noncitizen voters could wrongly target U.S. citizens and amount to voter intimidation prohibited by Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted a preliminary injunction.
The order bars the government in the nine states from conducting certain election-related field operations and interviews involving people whom officials know, suspect, or reasonably should know or suspect are U.S. citizens. It also restricts election-related field operations based wholly on certain federal records when those operations involve people officials know, suspect, or reasonably should suspect are U.S. citizens. The Trump administration appealed and sought to put the injunction on hold while the appeal proceeds.
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