A California federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to cease threatening election officials with criminal prosecution as part of its push to curb noncitizen voting.
U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson granted a temporary restraining order in a suit filed by unions representing California election workers, noting Election Day was "around the corner."
"Ballots have already been issued. Americans have already begun voting. Workers have already begun processing ballots," Thompson wrote. "Given the consequences of inaction, the Court sees no reason to delay its ruling."
The order also commands the administration to stop forcing workers to purge certain voters, deny ballot requests, or set aside ballots for people it suspects are ineligible.
Plaintiffs include the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The complaint alleges Attorney General Todd Blanche and other senior DOJ officials ran "a coordinated campaign to intimidate, threaten, and coerce state and local officials and employees."
This week the DOJ sent letters to election officials in all 50 states warning of possible prosecution if they did not preserve election records.
A week earlier the department mailed similar letters to every California county, demanding cooperation to identify potential noncitizens on voter rolls and warning officials they would "risk significant federal scrutiny" if they did not comply.
Earlier this week another California federal judge dismissed the Trump administration's lawsuit seeking to set aside ballots of 20,000 people flagged as potential noncitizens, a decision a split appeals panel upheld on Friday.
The Hill has reached out to the DOJ and the White House for comment on Thompson's order.
