更新时间：美国东部时间2026年10月26日晚7:37 / CBS新闻
华盛顿——联邦上诉法院于周一驳回了美国司法部的请求，拒绝强制加州选举官员搁置数千张选票，特朗普政府声称这些选票可能由涉嫌非公民身份的人员投出。
美国第九巡回上诉法院以2比1的裁决表示，其对该上诉无管辖权，并批准洛杉矶县首席选举官员提出的驳回该请求的动议。
法官马克·贝内特（Mark Bennett）和加布里埃尔·桑切斯（Gabriel Sanchez）指出，联邦政府未给联邦地区法院提供”充分机会”来审议其临时救济请求。帕特里克·布马泰（Patrick Bumatay）法官持异议。
这两位法官批评司法部在11月3日中期选举不到三周前才提起诉讼，且仅在上周才向地区法院申请临时限制令。他们还指出，司法部申请临时限制令之际，加州已经开始处理选票。
第九巡回上诉法院在一份无署名意见书中指出：”美国所称的紧急情况，至少部分是其自身造成的。此处的拖延至少部分可归因于美国自身拖延提起诉讼、未意识到加州现行州法对选票的发放和处理具有约束力、未认识到加州拥有数百万登记选民且按与之规模相符的时间表处理选票，以及未向法院说明其寻求的救济措施。”
由特朗普总统任命的贝内特法官和前总统拜登提名的桑切斯法官分别发表了附议意见。贝内特表示，即使法院对司法部的请求进行实质性法律审查，他也会拒绝其要求加州搁置不合格选民可能投出的选票的主张。
持异议的布马泰法官则表示，联邦政府有义务维护联邦选举的公正性。
“问题在于：联邦政府是否有权阻止对我们选举公正性的潜在破坏？根据联邦法律和宪法，答案必须是’是’，”这位特朗普任命的法官写道，”简言之，联邦政府对维护联邦选举、确保非公民的选票不影响选举结果拥有主权层面的利益。”
加州州长加文·纽瑟姆（Gavin Newsom）表示，第九巡回上诉法院的裁决是”积极进展，也是对特朗普攻击宪法和国家民主的可恶行径的及时阻碍”。
“特朗普正非法试图夺取宪法赋予他人的权力，以维持自身掌权。本次诉讼只是最新一步，”他在一份声明中表示，”毋庸置疑：特朗普对民主的攻击不会放缓。”
选民名单争议
这场围绕加州邮寄选票的快速升级的争议始于本月早些时候，当时代理副司法部长特伦特·麦科特（Trent McCotter）致信加州州务卿及洛杉矶县首席选举官迪恩·洛根（Dean Logan），要求他们在48小时内审查一份包含2万多名登记选民的名单，特朗普政府认为这些人”可能”是非公民，且已被邮寄选票。
洛杉矶县在10月15日致麦科特的信中指出，这份涉嫌非公民的名单包含全州各地登记选民的地址，且麦科特的信件未说明名单的编制依据。该县还告知麦科特，信件未提供任何关于该县如何核实公民身份的信息。
洛杉矶县的一名律师表示，司法部要求选举官洛根、登记员兼县书记员”参与一项非法行为”。
在该县回复麦科特的同一天，司法部起诉了加州、州务卿雪莉·韦伯（Shirley Weber）和洛根，指控州官员未与联邦政府合作，识别本州登记的非公民并维护选举公正性。
司法部要求联邦法官下令加州搁置其认定为涉嫌非公民人员的邮寄选票，并在计票前独立核实这些人的公民身份。
审理该案的法官大卫·O·卡特（David O. Carter）原定于周二下午就特朗普政府的临时限制令请求举行听证会。但次日，司法部采取了非常规措施，向第九巡回上诉法院提起上诉。
政府律师辩称，由于卡特法官尚未就其紧急救济请求作出裁决，其”沉默”相当于对要求加州搁置特朗普政府名单所列选民退回的邮寄选票的努力作出”默示驳回”。
由三名法官组成的第九巡回上诉法院合议庭随后举行了罕见的周日口头辩论，期间至少有两名法官对司法部要求法院介入的请求表示怀疑。
针对加州官员的这份”最后时刻”诉讼，是在11月中期选举不到三周前提起的，届时全国选民将决定哪个政党掌控参众两院。在加州，选举官员于10月初开始邮寄选票。根据法院文件，洛杉矶县已处理约55万张邮寄选票。
在中期选举前的数月里，特朗普先生试图扩大联邦对选举的控制，并推动国会通过一揽子选举法规，其中包括要求提供公民身份证明才能登记投票。
总统一再声称，数十万非公民已登记参加联邦选举，其中包括加州超过19万人。联邦法律和加州法律均禁止非公民投票。
但美国国土安全部（DHS）拒绝向加州选举官员解释其如何识别这些涉嫌不合格选民。
相反，司法部在诉讼中称，国土安全部将选民 rolls 信息与内部数据进行比对，以识别登记选民与可能的非公民之间的潜在匹配，随后使用”第三方软件”识别选民信息与该软件编制的人员数据之间的匹配。特朗普政府还表示，其使用内部记录和社会保障管理局的数据。
但加州官员认为，司法部的诉讼并未包含任何这些涉嫌非公民甚至会在大选中非法投票的指控。洛杉矶县登记员兼县书记员洛根的律师还表示，特朗普政府所寻求的救济措施超出了行政部门的宪法权力。
宪法的《选举条款》赋予各州规定国会选举的”时间、地点和方式”的权力，除非国会介入。
在持续诉讼期间，洛根和洛杉矶县的律师表示，他们试图分析特朗普政府涉嫌非公民名单的数据。他们表示，这份名单包含7035条带有县地址的记录。县政府官员审查了其中200条记录的样本，发现112条对应已注销或处于非活动状态的选民登记，因此未向该人邮寄选票。
据洛杉矶县一名选举官员称，该样本中的大多数人从未投过票，超过四分之一的人列出的出生地为美国本土。
联邦检察官周五向加州至少18个其他县的登记员发送了更多信件，附有涉嫌登记投票的非公民名单。司法部要求选举官员搁置它认为不合格人员投出的选票。
司法部可能会请求整个第九巡回上诉法院重新考虑其上诉，合议庭已给予政府当地时间晚上7点前提出此类请求的期限。
Appeals court dismisses DOJ’s request to force California to set aside ballots
Updated on: October 26, 2026 / 7:37 PM EDT / CBS News
Washington — A federal appeals court on Monday dismissed the Justice Department’s effort to force California election officials to set aside thousands of ballots that the Trump administration claims may have been cast by alleged noncitizens.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said in a 2-1 decision that it lacked jurisdiction over the appeal and granted a motion by the top elections official from Los Angeles County to dismiss the effort.
The federal government, Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez said, failed to allow a federal district court “adequate opportunity” to consider its request for temporary relief. Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented.
The two judges faulted the Justice Department for waiting until less than three weeks before the midterm elections on Nov. 3 to file its lawsuit and only seeking a temporary restraining order from the district court last week. They also pointed out that the department had sought a temporary restraining order as California was already processing ballots.
“The United States’s claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one,” the 9th Circuit said in an unsigned opinion. “At least part of the delay here is attributable to the United States’s own delay in filing suit, in realizing that existing California state law governs the issuance and processing of ballots, in recognizing that California has millions of registered voters and processes ballots on a schedule aligned with that scale, and in communicating to the court its desired relief.”
Both Bennett, appointed by President Trump, and Sanchez, tapped by former President Joe Biden, authored concurring opinions. Bennett said that even if the court had reached the legal merits of the Justice Department’s effort, he would have rejected its bid to force California to set aside the ballots that may be cast by ineligible voters.
Bumatay, who dissented, said the federal government has an interest in protecting the integrity of federal elections.
“The question — does the federal government have the power to stop this potential attack on the integrity of our elections? Under both federal law and the Constitution, the answer must be ‘yes,’” the judge, a Trump appointee, wrote. “Simply, the federal government has a sovereign interest in safeguarding federal elections and ensuring that the votes of noncitizens do not undermine our electoral results.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the 9th Circuit’s decision is a “positive development and a welcome speed bump to Trump’s disgusting attacks on the Constitution and our country’s democracy.”
“Trump is illegally trying to seize powers in the Constitution entrusted to others so he can stay in power. This lawsuit is just the latest step,” he said in a statement. “Make no mistake: Trump’s assault on democracy won’t slow down.”
Dispute over list of voters
The fast-moving dispute over California’s mail ballots was filed earlier this month after Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter sent letters to California’s secretary of state and the top election official in Los Angeles County, Dean Logan, which gave them 48 hours to review a list of more than 20,000 registered voters who the Trump administration believes are “likely” noncitizens and were sent mail ballots.
Los Angeles County told McCotter in a letter dated Oct. 15 that the list of suspected noncitizens contained addresses of registered voters throughout the state, and said his letter did not include information about how the list had been compiled. The county also told McCotter the letter did not provide any information as to how the county was to confirm citizenship status.
A lawyer for Los Angeles County said the Justice Department was asking Logan, the registrar-recorder and county clerk, “to engage in an unlawful course of conduct.”
On the same day that the county sent McCotter its response, the Justice Department sued California, Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Logan, and claimed that state officials had failed to work collaboratively with the federal government to identify any noncitizens registered to vote in the state and protect the integrity of elections.
The Justice Department asked a federal judge to order California to put aside mail ballots of people it has identified as suspected noncitizens and to independently verify their citizenship status before counting their ballots.
The judge overseeing the case, David O. Carter, scheduled a hearing for Tuesday afternoon on the Trump administration’s request for a temporary restraining order. But the following day, the Justice Department took the extraordinary step of filing an appeal with the 9th Circuit.
Government lawyers argued that because Carter had not yet ruled on their request for emergency relief, his “silence” amounted to a “constructive denial” of their effort to require California to set aside the mail ballots returned by the voters on the Trump administration’s list.
The three-judge 9th Circuit panel then held a rare Sunday oral argument session, during which at least two of the judges appeared skeptical of the Justice Department’s request for the court to step in.
The 11th-hour lawsuit against California officials was filed less than three weeks before the November midterm elections, when voters across the country will decide which party controls the House and Senate. In California, elections officials began mailing ballots in early October. Los Angeles County has already processed an estimated 550,000 mail ballots, according to court filings.
In the months leading up to the midterms, Mr. Trump has attempted to exert more federal control over elections and pushed Congress to enact a package of voting regulations, including requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.
The president has repeatedly claimed that hundreds of thousands of noncitizens are registered to vote in federal elections, including more than 190,000 in California. Both federal and California law prohibit noncitizens from voting.
But the Department of Homeland Security has declined to provide California election officials with an explanation of how it identified those alleged ineligible voters.
Instead, in its lawsuit, the Justice Department said the DHS compares information about voter rolls with internal data to identify potential matches between registered voters and possible noncitizens, and then uses “third-party software” to identify matches between voter information and data about that person compiled by the software program. The Trump administration also said it uses internal records and data from the Social Security Administration.
But California officials have argued that the Justice Department’s lawsuit does not contain any allegations that those suspected noncitizens will even vote unlawfully in the general election. Lawyers for Logan, the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder and county clerk, also said that the relief sought by the Trump administration exceeds the executive branch’s constitutional authority.
The Constitution’s Elections Clause gives states the power to set the “times, places and manners” of congressional elections unless Congress steps in.
Amid the ongoing litigation, lawyers for Logan and Los Angeles County said they attempted to analyze the data from the Trump administration’s list of alleged noncitizens. The list includes 7,035 records with county addresses, they said. County officials reviewed a sample of 200 of those records and found 112 of them correspond to voter registrations that were canceled or inactive, so no ballot was mailed to that person.
Most of the people in the sample had never voted, and more than one-quarter of them listed a birthplace in the U.S., according to a Los Angeles County election official.
Federal prosecutors sent more letters to at least 18 other California county registrars on Friday with lists of alleged noncitizens registered to vote. The Justice Department demanded the elections officials set aside ballots cast by those it believes are ineligible to vote.
The Justice Department could ask the full 9th Circuit to reconsider its appeal, and the panel gave the government until 7 p.m. local time to make such a request.