Federal Judge Orders the Trump Administration to Stop Threatening Election Officials, and the Justice Department Appeals

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson issued a temporary restraining order on Friday evening barring the Trump administration from threatening, intimidating or coercing state and local election officials in the run-up to Tuesday's midterm elections, according to CNN and BBC reporting read this run. The order blocks the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from demanding that officials remove voters from statewide rolls, refuse or segregate ballots, or halt ballot processing based on administration lists of voters alleged to be noncitizens.

Thompson, a Biden appointee based in California, wrote that the public has a paramount interest in ensuring that election officials and workers are able to carry out their work in accordance with federal law and election procedure, with the official day of the elections only a couple of days away. The case was brought by election workers' unions and civil rights groups, including the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens. The Justice Department had no immediate comment on the ruling, BBC reporting said, and CNN reported that the department appealed the order on Saturday.

The order, which runs through November 16, also requires the administration to inform the court of any search warrant applications, grand jury subpoenas or other demands to access election materials tied to its lists. It lands in California as a separate case over the administration's attempt to block the counting of California mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters alleged to be noncitizens continues - a case in which a federal court in Los Angeles has already denied the government's request, in coverage published by this station on October 31. Los Angeles County's own vote centers are open Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Standards pass by LAS-006 was completed for this item.