Supreme Court rejects Trump’s bid to set aside 20,000 California ballots

The Supreme Court has already dealt President Trump a setback in his fight over California's mail-in ballots. The justices rejected an emergency request from his administration Monday, just hours after it was filed. The Justice Department wanted California to set aside ballots for more than 20,000 people it suspects are not U.S. citizens. But California officials questioned the accuracy of that list and warned that eligible voters could have their ballots wrongfully excluded. The Supreme Court rejected the request in a one-sentence order without explaining its reasoning. No justices publicly dissented. The decision follows a string of losses for the administration in lower court. On Friday, a federal appeals court ruled 2-1 against the Justice Department's request. The two judges in the majority wrote, If the United States believes different procedures are necessary for vote-by-mail ballots, we believe it should take that suggestion to Congress, not the courts. The administration had argued that once the disputed ballots were mixed with other votes, there would be no way to separate them. But the Supreme Court's decision leaves California's existing ballot counting procedures in place for today's election. We'll be right back.