'Unprecedented': DOJ stuns with 'bad-faith' move in California election meddling case

The Justice Department drew fire for an “unprecedented level of bad-faith argument” after asking a judge who ruled its voter data demand “illegal” to set aside thousands of California ballots.In a motion filed Friday, DOJ asked U.S. District Judge David O. Carter to make California set aside the midterm mail ballots of more than 20,000 registered voters whom Department of Homeland Security agencies flagged as likely noncitizens.The department wants that order while it appeals what it calls Carter’s “constructive denial” of an earlier emergency request, treating his failure to rule by its deadline as a rejection. DOJ is running from a judge who has already ruled against it.“We have, somehow, reached a heretofore unprecedented level of bad-faith argument from DOJ,” Law Dork journalist Chris Geidner wrote on Bluesky.Geidner was reacting to DOJ’s reliance on a 2025 Supreme Court ruling that treated a judge’s “14 hours and 28 minutes” of inaction...