Rolling Back Trump

1. May 22, 2025Overhauled DHS's SAVE database so states could check entire voter lists against Social Security data, allowing bulk queries for the first time. Source ↗
2. Jun 22, 2026U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan blocked use of the modified SAVE system, ruling its handling of sensitive data violated the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act. Source ↗
3. Sep 25, 2026The Supreme Court let the administration resume using the modified SAVE system during the pre-election window, over a dissent from its three liberal justices. Source ↗
4. Oct 13, 2026The Justice Department gave California 48 hours to review a federal list of people it says are likely noncitizens who were sent mail ballots for the midterms, warning it would seek emergency legal relief if the state did not comply. Source ↗
5. Oct 14, 2026California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, responding to DOJ's 48-hour letter, said the department's "relentless efforts to unlawfully gain access to states' protected voter data and purge voter rolls serve only to cause chaos and fuel public distrust in our elections." Source ↗
6. Oct 15, 2026The Justice Department sued California in federal court in Los Angeles, asking a judge to block the state from counting mail ballots in the November 3 midterms from more than 20,000 voters it calls likely noncitizens, after DOJ's 48-hour deadline for the state to review the list passed. Source ↗
7. Oct 15, 2026Reuters reported the Justice Department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C. this term over voter rolls and lost 26 of those cases so far without winning one. Source ↗
8. Oct 15, 2026The League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the League of United Latin American Citizens sued DHS in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleging it obtained voter files from at least 47 states and, through a policy of combining the data with commercial datasets, disregarded federal safeguards and violated federal law. Source ↗
9. Oct 15, 2026The suit asks the court to declare DHS's collection of voter data illegal, block the policy, and order DHS to delete and stop using the data it already has. Source ↗
10. Oct 15, 2026Reuters reported the Justice Department sent Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar seven subpoenas for voter data between June 16 and September 2, 2026, three of them in the final two days. Aguilar, calling the pressure intentional: "If they can take me out in '26, they have control in '28." Source ↗
11. Oct 19, 2026The Justice Department charged 28 lawful permanent residents across California's four federal districts with election crimes under "Operation Protect the Vote," saying all 28 appear on the list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants it gave California the week before. Source ↗
12. Oct 19, 2026Most face felony charges of false statements on a naturalization application and/or fraudulent voter registration; six in the Eastern District face a misdemeanor charge of voting by an alien. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said, "Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen." Source ↗
13. Oct 19, 2026At the same news conference, McCotter acknowledged the government's list could include errors: "There may be some names on there who it turns out ultimately are citizens, we're not perfect ... And that's why we've asked California to cooperate with us." Source ↗
14. Oct 20, 2026In a court filing responding to DOJ's lawsuit, Los Angeles County said only 7,035 of the 20,000 names on the list had addresses in the county, some of them duplicates, and that a sample review of 200 names found the list "unreliable." Source ↗
15. Oct 20, 2026Assistant Registrar-Recorder Monica Flores wrote that among the sampled records where birthplace was "meaningfully reported," "38.9% indicate that they were born in the United States, which is strong evidence of citizenship." Source ↗
16. Oct 20, 2026Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and three Democratic campaign committees sued Trump, the Justice Department, Attorney General Todd Blanche, DHS and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin in Washington federal court, assigned to Chief Judge James Boasberg. Source ↗
17. Oct 20, 2026The suit seeks a court order barring the administration from purging legally registered voters from statewide voter rolls or denying them ballots, and a ruling that it has illegally threatened state election officials with prosecution before the Nov. 3 election. Source ↗
18. Oct 21, 2026U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín barred DHS from taking field actions, including interviews, to investigate noncitizen voting against anyone it believes could be a U.S. citizen, in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin. Source ↗
19. Oct 21, 2026The order takes effect Friday afternoon and is set to last until after the Nov. 3 midterms. Source ↗
20. Oct 21, 2026Martínez-Olguín wrote that DHS's data alleging hundreds of thousands of possible illegal voters "is widely known to inadvertently include U.S. citizens," and that "the reliance on admittedly flawed and incomplete data to create a list of individuals for HSI to interview in the months leading up to an election" was the problem. Source ↗
21. Oct 21, 2026She wrote that "the public's interest in safe elections, free from interference or intimidation, far exceed Defendants' purported interest in combating unlawful voting by non-U.S. citizens." Source ↗
22. Oct 21, 2026Beau Tremitiere, an attorney for Protect Democracy representing the plaintiffs, called it "a serious protection" since "the current policy targets known naturalized citizens." Source ↗
23. Oct 22, 2026The Justice Department asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene in its California mail-ballot lawsuit before U.S. District Judge David Carter, who is assigned the case, had ruled on its request for an emergency order. Source ↗
24. Oct 22, 2026DOJ argued Carter's lack of a ruling by Thursday afternoon amounted to a "constructive denial"; Carter had scheduled a hearing on the request for the following week. Source ↗
25. Oct 26, 2026A divided Ninth Circuit panel dismissed the Justice Department's emergency appeal for lack of jurisdiction, 2-1, and denied its emergency motion to force California to set aside mail ballots sent to more than 20,000 voters it calls likely noncitizens as moot. Source ↗
26. Oct 26, 2026The majority, Judges Mark Bennett (Trump-appointed) and Gabriel Sanchez (Biden-appointed), said the government had not given the district court an "adequate opportunity" to rule on its restraining-order request. Source ↗
27. Oct 26, 2026The majority also said its claimed emergency was, "at least in part," a "self-constructed" one, citing delays attributable to the government's own choices, including waiting days after suing to seek emergency relief. Source ↗
28. Oct 26, 2026Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented, arguing the federal government has a sovereign interest in protecting federal elections. Source ↗
29. Oct 26, 2026The panel did not rule on the merits of DOJ's underlying demand; Judge Bennett wrote separately that he would have denied the request on the merits had the court reached them. Source ↗
30. Oct 26, 2026The government had until 7 p.m. Pacific time that day to seek panel rehearing or rehearing en banc from the full Ninth Circuit; DOJ's underlying lawsuit against California and its election officials remains pending before U.S. District Judge David Carter. Source ↗
31. Oct 26, 2026The Justice Department asked Washington state to set aside any ballots received from more than 400 people it suspects registered to vote without U.S. citizenship, saying it had identified 1,500 votes cast by those people in prior elections, a demand similar to the one it made of California for up to 20,000 people. Source ↗
32. Oct 26, 2026Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said, "We are asking the state to set aside those ballots until we can confirm they are legal voters." Source ↗
33. Oct 26, 2026Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in an emailed statement, "We take our responsibility to protect voter information seriously and will only respond to requests that follow due process." He added, "We see what's happening in California and don't want Washingtonians to be harassed." Source ↗
34. Oct 26, 2026Investigations into the administration's prior noncitizen-voting claims found far fewer cases than alleged: in Nevada it alleged 1,500 potential noncitizen voters and a subsequent investigation found zero. Source ↗
35. Oct 26, 2026In Arizona's Maricopa County, a Trump-supporting county recorder's claim of 207 possible noncitizens was reduced to eight by the Republican county attorney. Source ↗
36. Oct 28, 2026A federal agent hand-delivered Butte County, California Clerk-Recorder Keaton Denlay a letter demanding his office segregate the ballots of 47 people DOJ called "likely aliens," giving him 48 hours and warning that officials who tabulate such ballots "risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime." Source ↗
37. Oct 28, 2026Denlay found the list was riddled with errors: it actually contained 46 names, one repeated; 32 were not on Butte County's active voter rolls at all; and 7 lacked enough information to check. That left six names that might warrant further review, out of the 47 DOJ claimed. Source ↗
38. Oct 28, 2026Denlay declined to act on the list, saying, "Taking all this information as a whole, it kind of becomes absurd, so I'm not losing any sleep over it." San Benito County's registrar reported a similar list with names not currently registered to vote. Source ↗
39. Oct 28, 2026U.S. District Judge David Carter rejected the Justice Department's bid to require California election officials to separate out mail ballots from roughly 20,000 people it claims are not U.S. citizens, saying the request violates "longstanding constitutional principles" giving states the authority to administer their own elections. Source ↗
40. Oct 28, 2026Carter wrote, "Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch." Source ↗
41. Oct 28, 2026Questioning the accuracy of the government's list, Carter wrote, "Given the vagueness of Plaintiff's descriptions of its procedures and the unreliability of its similar claims in other states, the Court cannot conclude that Plaintiff's process is credible." Source ↗
42. Oct 28, 2026Carter wrote, "Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred," and said the government can address the issue by continuing to indict people for illegally voting as noncitizens. Source ↗
43. Oct 28, 2026The Justice Department plans to appeal Carter's decision and will seek an emergency order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Source ↗
44. Oct 28, 2026Reuters reported the administration has issued more than 100 subpoenas demanding records on tens of thousands of voters in at least 13 states, most of them to state and local election officials in the past three months. At least 49 were issued under the authority of grand juries. Source ↗
45. Oct 28, 2026In California, the Justice Department issued at least 17 subpoenas, including to Los Angeles and San Diego counties. A Trump-backed U.S. attorney targeted at least eight Massachusetts cities and towns with grand jury subpoenas, and Washington's secretary of state's office said it received about 60 federal subpoenas in recent weeks. Source ↗
46. Oct 28, 2026The Justice Department declined to confirm or deny its use of subpoenas in noncitizen voter investigations, saying it "will enforce the law wherever the evidence leads." Reuters found prosecutors have accused at least 147 people of illegally voting under a federal "voting by aliens" statute since Trump returned to office. Source ↗
47. Oct 29, 2026Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter sent letters to state election leaders reminding them to preserve ballots, pollbooks, precinct sign-in sheets and other election-related materials, writing, "It is a crime to willfully fail to comply" with the record-retention rules. "Such a failure is punishable by up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine." Source ↗
48. Oct 29, 2026In the Democrats' lawsuit, Chief Judge James Boasberg stopped short of ruling on their demands but agreed to require the Trump administration to disclose the list of states where it has asked local officials to set aside certain ballots or take action to remove certain voters from the rolls. Source ↗
49. Oct 29, 2026Boasberg said he would set the suit aside if the administration pledged not to send more such letters before Election Day: "You can moot all of this by saying we're not intending to do this in the next five days before the election." Source ↗
50. Oct 30, 2026The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's office received federal grand jury subpoenas the week before, as the Justice Department escalated a separate criminal probe into alleged noncitizen voting. Source ↗
51. Oct 30, 2026Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan said, "At every step, the US Department of Justice has taken a confrontational, adversarial approach. Election officials are acting in accordance with state and federal law." Source ↗
52. Oct 30, 2026A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the subpoenas but said California and the federal government "agree that non-citizen voting is properly addressed through criminal law." Source ↗
53. Oct 30, 2026The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration's request to temporarily block California from counting any mail ballots for the November 3 midterms from more than 20,000 registered voters it alleges are likely noncitizens, the second time that week the court denied an emergency request from the Justice Department in the case. Source ↗
54. Oct 30, 2026In rejecting the Justice Department's emergency request, Ninth Circuit Judges Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, and Gabriel Sanchez, a Biden appointee, wrote, "[T]here is a material risk that granting the United States its requested relief would result in disenfranchisement and could jeopardize the County's entire election." Source ↗
55. Oct 30, 2026The panel's third judge, Patrick Bumatay, also a Trump appointee, dissented. Source ↗
56. Oct 30, 2026U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson, based in California, issued an order Friday night blocking the Trump administration from threatening or intimidating election officials. It extends through Nov. 16, nearly two weeks after Election Day. Source ↗
57. Oct 30, 2026The eight-page order prohibits any action that may "threaten, intimidate or coerce state or local elections officials or workers to demand that they halt processing the ballots of any registered voter solely on the basis that the ballot belongs to an individual alleged by [the administration] to be ineligible to vote." Source ↗
58. Oct 30, 2026Thompson wrote, "In the lead-up to the election, high-ranking DOJ and DHS officials have engaged in a campaign to intimidate, threaten, and coerce state and local officials and employees who are engaged in administering the ongoing midterm 2026 election." Source ↗
59. Oct 30, 2026Thompson also wrote, "Although Defendants claim that their actions are designed to halt unlawful voting by noncitizens, their actions are likely to have the effect of interfering with election administration and disenfranchising lawful voters." Source ↗
60. Oct 30, 2026State election officials said McCotter's invocation of criminal liability marked a departure from how past administrations communicated such obligations. Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas said, "While I hope the decision to emphasize criminal penalties was intended simply as a reminder of the law, it could have been handled differently." Source ↗
61. Oct 30, 2026In a separate case, Chief Judge James E. Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to turn over its list of 20,000 alleged noncitizen registrants in California to immigrant rights groups by the end of the day Friday. The government promptly appealed. Source ↗
62. Nov 2, 2026The Justice Department applied to the Supreme Court for an injunction pending appeal in its California ballot case, submitted to Justice Kagan. Source ↗
63. Nov 2, 2026Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote, "Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back." Source ↗
64. Nov 2, 2026In the Democrats' separate lawsuit, Chief Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to stop demanding that California election officials set aside ballots from the 20,000 people it calls likely noncitizens. Source ↗
65. Nov 2, 2026Boasberg ruled, "The Executive Branch has likely violated the Constitution's Elections Clause, which commits authority over election rules to the states and Congress alone." Source ↗
66. Nov 2, 2026Axios reported Boasberg's order went further than the earlier rulings in the case: it directly bars federal officials from making the set-aside demands, even as the Justice Department was separately asking the Supreme Court to force California to comply. Source ↗
67. Nov 2, 2026The Supreme Court denied the Justice Department's last-minute bid to temporarily block California from counting the mail-in ballots of about 20,000 voters it suggested may not be U.S. citizens. Source ↗
68. Nov 6, 2026The Justice Department moved to dismiss its own lawsuit that sought to stop California from counting roughly 20,000 ballots it alleged went to noncitizens, about a week before a court-appointed special master was slated to evaluate the accuracy of its list. Source ↗
69. Nov 6, 2026The motion said, "The relief the United States sought and needed is no longer available—rendering voluntary dismissal necessary," because by the time of the hearing the state will have already "commingled the challenged ballots with lawful ones." Source ↗
70. Nov 10, 2026U.S. District Judge David Carter officially closed the case and canceled the hearing set for that Friday, in a one-paragraph order responding to the Justice Department's move to voluntarily dismiss the suit. Source ↗
71. Nov 10, 2026 · LatestCarter wrote, "This lawsuit attempted to disrupt an ongoing election and create confusion and uncertainty for voters and election workers alike," adding, "The right to vote is sacred. So, too, is trust in our democracy." Source ↗

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