Amid the midterm elections in the US, President Donald Trump’s administration has received a major setback from the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s demand that California set aside the votes of thousands of people the federal government considers ‘non-citizens’. This important decision has come just hours before the last day of mid-term elections. The Trump administration sought a hearing in the case related to more than 20,000 California ballots. President Trump has claimed that these votes were cast by people who are not US citizens.
The Supreme Court refused to intervene immediately in a case involving 20,000 people. The Republican administration called these people on California’s voter rolls ‘probable non-citizens’. California is primarily considered a stronghold of the Democratic Party.
The California government protested
The Trump administration wants to set aside the ballots of voters the government deems to be potential non-citizens. The votes of these voters will not be counted until their citizenship is confirmed. However, the California government opposed this demand. He said that the list prepared by the federal government has many errors and based on it the votes of legitimate voters can also be affected.
President Trump was shocked
The decision deals another blow to President Trump’s efforts to interfere in the election process before the counting of votes. This election will determine who will control the Congress (Parliament) for the last two years of their second term. No judge dissented from this decision. This is a major blow to the Trump administration. The administration says it is fighting with the state government to ensure that all eligible voters can cast their votes and have their votes counted as per the law.
What the court said in the order
The court’s order states that the application for an interim injunction pending appeal, which was presented to Justice Kagan and referred to the court by her, is dismissed.
The Trump administration’s argument
The Trump administration filed suit against California in mid-October. His argument was that the state’s voter rolls contained more than 20,000 names of people who were not American citizens.
The judges rejected the administration’s argument
However, judges have repeatedly rejected the administration’s argument. They believe that the administration’s list contains factual errors and risks disenfranchising eligible voters. A judge said that while the administration claimed it had identified more than 100 people in Nevada as ‘non-citizens’, the state government proved they were actually US citizens. The court has sided with Trump on many issues, but the court’s stance on matters related to voting rights has differed from Trump’s.
The governor of California said that democracy had won
After the court’s decision, Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, wrote on social media, ‘The court rejected Trump’s emergency appeal without hearing the other side. Democracy has won.
Several lower courts also rejected a Justice Department request to set aside disputed California votes until the voters’ citizenship status was confirmed.
