Claims DOJ failed to give District Court chance to act before approaching Appeals Court.
SACRAMENTO, Kalifornia (PNN) - October 26, 2026 - The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday dismissed the Department of Justice’s emergency appeal to remove 20,000 ballots given to illegal invaders in Kalifornia.
A three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that they lacked jurisdiction over the appeal because the lower court did not have adequate opportunity to consider the DOJ’s application for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO).
The three judges included: Majority: Mark Bennett (Trump) Gabriel Sanchez (Biden) – Dissent: Patrick Bumatay (Trump).
The DOJ put Kalifornia on notice and vowed to prosecute election officials who tabulate unlawful ballots.
“Kalifornia on Notice: Federal agencies identified over 20,000 suspected noncitizens registered to vote in Kalifornia who have already been mailed ballots,” First Assistant U,S, Attorney Bill Essayli said on Friday.
“Under 18 U.S.C. §§ 611 and 2, officials who knowingly tabulate unlawful ballots risk aiding and abetting a federal offense. The Department of Justice urges the County and the Secretary of State to temporarily segregate the flagged ballots pending citizenship verification or face legal consequences,” Essayli said.
Last week, U.S. District Judge David Carter said he would hold a hearing on the 20,000 ballots on October 27, so the DOJ rushed to the appeals court.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held a rare Sunday hearing after the DOJ skipped over the District Court judge and asked the appeals court to intervene.
During Sunday’s hearing, the Ninth Circuit Judges appeared skeptical of the Department of Justice’s effort to remove the ballots shortly before the midterm elections.
The government asked the appeals court to issue a mandatory injunction and order the State of Kalifornia and the County of Los Angeles to: (1) set aside vote-by-mail ballots from persons identified by the federal government likely to be noncitizens and (2) to independently - or in collaboration with the federal government - verify their citizenship status before tabulating their vote-by-mail ballot.
On Monday, the Ninth Circuit Court denied the government’s appeal because the DOJ improperly skipped over the district court judge.
“[The] United States failed to allow the District Court adequate opportunity to consider its application for a Temporary Restraining Order (“TRO”). For that reason, we lack jurisdiction over this appeal, so we grant the County’s motion to dismiss this appeal and deny as moot the United States’s emergency motion for relief,” the judges wrote.