Supreme Court rebuke on election eve analyzed
The gist
The Supreme Court denied the Justice Department's bid to block counting mail ballots tied to 20,000 California voters.
The one-sentence order came the night before midterms and ended Trump's election-case win streak.
How it unfolded
- Nov 2, 2026The Supreme Court denied the Justice Department's emergency application to temporarily block California from counting mail-in ballots linked to more than 20,000 registered voters officials alleged may be non-US citizens, in a brief one-sentence order with no public dissent.
- Nov 2, 2026The court acted within hours of the filing — six hours and 24 minutes per one report, seven per another. In a separate federal court hearing that Monday, a Justice Department lawyer acknowledged the data had a high error rate.
- Nov 2, 2026The 9th Circuit cited the Supreme Court's 2006 ruling in Purcell v. Gonzalez, saying it "counsels that we should not intervene at this late hour."
Key terms
- Solicitor General
- Official in the U.S. Justice Department who represents the federal government before the Supreme Court.
- Purcell v. Gonzalez
- 2006 Supreme Court case underlying the doctrine that courts should not change election rules close to an election.
- 9th Circuit
- The largest U.S. federal appeals court, based in San Francisco and covering nine western states.
Source: Wikipedia