The Trump administration can’t sequester California ballots or threaten election workers with prosecution under a federal appellate court ruling handed down Monday, in a case that saw the federal government win and then just as quickly lose.
The Service Employees International Union sued the federal government, alleging violations of the Voting Rights Act. It requested and won a restraining order last week forbidding the federal government from sequestering more ballots and threatening local election officials with prosecution.
The government challenged that restraining order, and on Monday, it won, briefly. A three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that challenging ballots was a right of the government and “core executive (branch) function.”
“At most, (the SEIU and the other plaintiffs) fear a possibility of a future prosecution,” said the appellate court order. “ If such a prosecution is ever brought, the prosecution itself supplies the means by which any defect, vindictiveness included, can be raised and remedied.”
But a second hearing among all the 9th Circuit justices vacated that decision in a terse order handed down hours later on Monday. The decision will be reheard by the full panel.
— Nigel Duara