The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday delivered an Election Day win to the Trump Justice Department on non-citizen voting.
On Monday night, a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court briefly lifted its block on the Trump Administration’s efforts to separate and inspect suspected non-citizen ballots.
Hours later, the same appeals court reversed its ruling and sent the fight to the court’s entire slate of judges.
Fox News reported on Monday night’s decision by a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit:
A federal appeals court briefly lifted a block on the Trump administration’s efforts to investigate alleged voting by noncitizens in California, then reversed course hours later, sending the dispute to the full 11-judge 9th Circuit for rehearing.
Earlier Monday night, a three-judge panel granted the Justice Department’s request to pause a temporary restraining order issued by a San Francisco federal judge. That order had barred the administration from making further requests to set aside ballots under the warning of prosecution of state and local election officials who declined.
The panel said the government was likely to prevail in arguing that its requests and criminal investigations were core executive functions.
Hours later, the full 9th Circuit vacated the ruling and ordered the case reheard by all 11 active judges, according to the court’s order. The move restored the district court’s restrictions while the full court considers the dispute.
On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit Court’s entire slate of judges voted 6-5 (en banc) to reinstate its earlier ruling lifting the restrictions on the Trump DOJ’s efforts to separate non-citizen ballots.
This is the court’s third ruling in 12 hours.
The Trump Administration will now be able to ask state election officials to set aside suspect ballots.
BREAKING: In a 6-5 vote, the Ninth Circuit reinstated its earlier ruling lifting restrictions on the Trump administration’s efforts to have states set aside suspected noncitizen ballots, allowing it to resume such requests and warn election officials of prosecution. https://t.co/w6UFfDfHlP
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) November 3, 2026
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