9th Circuit panel questions basis for feds' request to block 20,000 California ballots (www.latimes.com)

submitted 16 hours ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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In a rare Sunday hearing, a federal appeals court judge appointed by Trump questioned how the Trump administration’s request to intervene in California’s ongoing midterm election in order to force state officials to set aside 20,000 ballots from voters whose citizenship it questions squares with the U.S. Constitution.

Judge Mark J. Bennett said that while the executive branch is “unhappy” with what California law requires for ensuring voters are citizens, the state has the right to determine the manner of its elections under the Elections Clause of the Constitution and Congress has not challenged that process, despite having the ability to do so.

“It seems to me that you want us to issue an injunction that is entirely inconsistent with the law the California Legislature has adopted pursuant to the Elections Clause,” Bennett said. “How can we do that?”

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[-] dhork@lemmy.world 21 points 16 hours ago

Sanchez repeatedly questioned the provenance of the administration’s list, asking which third parties were involved in providing the data. Donnelly could not answer, which Sanchez said raised questions about the reliability of the list.

I bet it was Grok. They fed it all the stolen DOGE data, told it to accept as fact that non-citizens were voting, and give it a list of names.

[-] mkwt@lemmy.world 10 points 14 hours ago

Judge Sanchez's name, Gabriel Sanchez, is on the list. Here's what he had to say about that.

My name is Gabriel Sanchez. I guarantee you there are many Gabriel Sanchezes in Los Angeles County.

[-] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 3 points 14 hours ago

It was probably even simpler than that. They gave it a list of names, and said "make a report claiming that these are all non-citizens."

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

Because they were going to vote Democrat, your honor.

this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2026

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