TRUMP

Trump Judge Humiliates Him Week Before Midterms

A court called out MAGA’s “self-constructed” emergency.

President Donald Trump has been humiliated just eight days away from the critical midterm elections by a judge he appointed.

On Monday, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Trump administration, which made a last-minute attempt to block California from counting mail ballots cast by 20,000 registered voters they claim are noncitizens.

In a 2-1 decision, the court said it lacked jurisdiction over the appeal and granted a motion by Los Angeles County to dismiss the effort. The midterm elections are held on November 3.

The majority was joined by Circuit Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, and Circuit Judge Gabriel Sanchez, who ⁠was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden. Judge Patrick Bumatay, another Trump appointee, dissented and said he would have granted the request.

Bennett, who was nominated by Trump in 2018, and Sanchez ruled that the appeals court was not authorized to rule on the Department of Justice’s lawsuit before the district court had addressed it.

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“The United States failed to allow the district court adequate opportunity to consider its application for a Temporary Restraining Order,” the majority wrote, as reported by Politico. “The United States’s claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one.”

Bennett and Sanchez also called out the Justice Department for waiting to file its lawsuit only three weeks ahead of the midterms, and only seeking the temporary restraining order from the district court last week, as ballots were already being processed.

They said it failed to allow a federal district court “adequate opportunity” to consider its request for temporary relief.

As part of his dissent, Bumatay noted that the Trump administration’s belief that a federal criminal law to halt voting by noncitizens overruled California’s own electoral procedures would be likely to prevail. He claimed every day without action from the courts on the issue would boost the chances of votes by noncitizens being counted in the midterm elections.

In a separate concurrence, in which Bennett rebutted Bumatay’s dissent, Bennett he said that the Trump administration “has offered no workable plan of any kind as to how the remedy it seeks could be accomplished in practice without potential catastrophic consequences to California’s ongoing election.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom reacted to the ruling, claiming the Trump administration was trying to “baselessly sow doubt” over a state’s right to oversee elections within its own jurisdiction.

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“Today’s ruling is a positive development and a welcome speed bump to Trump’s disgusting attacks on the Constitution and our country’s democracy,” Newsom said in a statement. “I have been sounding the alarm since last year, when Trump illegally federalized the California National Guard — Trump is illegally trying to seize powers in the Constitution entrusted to others so he can stay in power. This lawsuit is just the latest step.”

Newsom also warned, “Make no mistake: Trump’s assault on democracy won’t slow down... If everyone who cares about democracy participates, this election won’t be close — and none of Trump’s lies or conspiracy theories will be able to call that result, and the will of people, into doubt.”

A hearing in the case is now scheduled for Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in California.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Justice Department for comment.

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