A federal judge has temporarily barred the Trump administration from threatening state and local election officials with criminal prosecution for processing ballots in line with the law, days before Americans vote in midterm elections that will decide control of Congress.
US District Judge Trina Thompson, sitting in San Francisco, issued a temporary restraining order on Friday evening in a case brought by unions representing election workers and civil rights groups, including the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the NAACP.
The order bars the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from demanding that officials segregate ballots, purge voters from the rolls, refuse ballots to specific voters, or halt ballot processing, where the demand rests solely on the administration’s lists of voters it alleges are ineligible — in practice, people it claims may not be US citizens. It also bars threats of criminal prosecution against officials who refuse those demands or who count ballots as the law requires.
Thompson wrote that although the defendants say their actions are designed to halt unlawful voting by noncitizens, they are likely to have the effect of interfering with election administration and disenfranchising lawful voters. She added that election workers who do their jobs in accordance with the law do not violate federal criminal law even if a particular ballot belongs to a registered voter alleged by the defendants to be ineligible to vote.
The order, which runs until 16 November, also requires the departments to tell every government that received their ballot letters that the threats are blocked, and to disclose any search warrant applications, grand jury subpoenas or other demands for election materials tied to the voter lists. A preliminary injunction hearing is set for 13 November, with the Justice Department due to respond by noon on Monday.
The ruling follows weeks of pressure: the Justice Department demanded California set aside about 20,000 ballots and Washington 405, subpoenaed Los Angeles County election workers to a grand jury, and this week sent letters to election officials in all 50 states warning of potential prosecution if they failed to preserve election records. On Wednesday, a separate federal judge rejected the department’s bid to set aside the California ballots, describing the move as brazen pre-election interference.
The Justice Department had no immediate comment on Friday’s ruling. The midterms take place on Tuesday 3 November, with Republicans holding narrow majorities in both the House and the Senate.
The ruling is a temporary emergency order, not a final judgment on the underlying claims, and the administration may seek to overturn it at the 13 November hearing.
Sources: Reuters, “Judge orders Trump administration to cease threats to prosecute election officials” (31 October 2026), https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/judge-orders-trump-administration-cease-threats-prosecute-election-officials-2026-10-31/ ; CNN, “Judge imposes sweeping emergency order halting DOJ pressure campaign on election officials across the country” (30 October 2026), https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/30/politics/emergency-order-halts-doj-pressure-campaign-election-officials?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_meta
