A federal judge in California on Friday issued a temporary restraining order against the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, prohibiting federal officials from pressuring state and local election workers to change ballot procedures. U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson ordered the federal government to stop demanding that officials segregate ballots, purge voter rolls, or halt ballot processing based on claims of noncitizen voting. The ruling also blocks the administration from threatening election workers with criminal prosecution for noncompliance.
The order follows a lawsuit filed Thursday by labor unions and civil rights groups, including the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens. The plaintiffs accused the Trump administration of using aggressive tactics to interfere with the 2026 midterm elections. The Justice Department has recently pressed California officials to set aside mail ballots for approximately 20,000 individuals it alleges are noncitizens, citing a data-matching program that compares state voter lists with federal records.
In her opinion, Judge Thompson stated that while the government claims its actions are intended to stop unlawful voting, they are likely to interfere with election administration and disenfranchise lawful voters. She found that the federal government likely violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits attempting to intimidate or coerce those assisting others in voting. The judge also noted that election workers performing their duties according to law do not violate federal criminal statutes, even if a specific ballot is later alleged to be ineligible.
For voters, the ruling means that ballots currently being processed will not be set aside or excluded based on the federal government’s recent data-matching lists before the midterm conclusion. The decision also establishes a legal check on federal intervention into state-run elections. The Justice Department’s efforts had reached at least 29 states and Washington, D.C., through letters demanding voter data preservation and investigative cooperation.
What happens next: The temporary restraining order is scheduled to expire on November 16, 2026. Judge Thompson has set the next hearing in the case for November 13. Additionally, the judge ordered the Justice Department to disclose any pending search warrant applications or grand jury subpoenas related to its voter eligibility lists. This follows subpoenas issued to three officials in the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office, which ordered them to appear before prosecutors the day after the election. The Trump administration has already appealed related ballot-segregation rulings in California to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has previously rejected such requests.