U.S. District Judge David O. Carter of Los Angeles just concluded a 3 1/2 hour hearing (minus recesses) in the California election case without issuing a ruling. He promised one tomorrow.
But he concluded the hearing with a very direct and unmistakeable warning to the Trump DOJ: “This court believes that it would be wise that any threats to state and county election employees cease immediately.”
The warning comes after top DOJ officials have repeatedly threatened to prosecute election administrators if they process ballots cast by noncitizens. The threats continued earlier in the hearing, with Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, again insisting that knowingly processing ballots that the DOJ claims are from noncitizens would be a federal crime.
The DOJ is promulgating President Trump’s Big Lie of rampant noncitizen voting by seeking a temporary restraining order that would force Los Angeles County to segregate and not yet count ballots from voters who appear on a Trump administration list that it alleges contains the names of some 20,000 noncitizen voters. It’s an unprecedented move to introduce a documented citizenship verification procedure into the election process while voting is underway.
While Judge Carter didn’t immediately rule, he telegraphed that he was likely to deny the TRO and suggested that instead he would schedule an expedited preliminary injunction proceeding in roughly two weeks so that he could hear evidence and witnesses and build a factual record for appeal. He also indicated he would appoint a special master, whom he had already decided on and was present in courtroom, to help him sort through the technical election administration issues involved in the case.
Importantly, Judge Carter’s suggested timeline of two weeks would kick the case past Election Day and prevent the Trump DOJ from interfering in the processing of ballots while voting is still underway. The DOJ could still prosecute noncitizen voters, if any, he said.
Judge Carter was more focused on the Dec. 3 deadline for certifying the election results. Anticipating that the DOJ would object to the delay, Judge Carter said: “My response is, we can clean that up before December 3.”
More on this tomorrow …
Starting from the original “Stop the Steal” fabulism in 2020, how many election-related court cases have these malignant buffoons actually won?
Any?
Bueller?
I, for one and for personal reasons, am glad to hear the threats must stop.
California should indict the responsible DOJ members for criminal violations of California Election Code 18502. Sure they’ll argue the case should be dismissed under the Supremacy Clause or whatever but fuck em. Put them on the defensive.
62 lawsuits. 61 denials. The 62nd was initially in his favor in Pennsylvania, but it was later overturned.
Considering who the Constitution actually, and explicitly, puts in charge of running elections, it will at least make them dance and twist and sweat a lot.