Justice Department seeks contempt sanctions after legal team reveals errors in California voter list

The U.S. Justice Department asked a federal judge on Sunday to consider contempt charges against an immigrant rights organization and its legal team. The government contends that the group violated a court order by publishing a detailed analysis of a database containing names of suspected noncitizen voters in California. This move intensifies the legal conflict over the administration's use of voter roll data just days before the general election.

On Friday, Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., granted the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, known as CHIRLA, access to federal records. The records cover more than 20,000 individuals whom the Trump administration claims are registered noncitizen voters in California. Boasberg instructed the plaintiffs to use the data solely to demonstrate their legal standing to sue and prohibited them from disclosing specific names from the list.

Attorneys for CHIRLA filed court documents on Saturday that outlined their findings from the data. Their analysis indicated that more than 40% of the individuals on the federal list do not appear in the state's official voter file. The report also identified 22 people who were likely naturalized U.S. citizens. The lawyers noted that thousands of other U.S. citizens appeared to be included in the list as well.

In its Sunday filing, the Justice Department argued that the data analysis was unrelated to the plaintiffs' standing to bring the lawsuit. The government stated that the report's focus on general inaccuracies and comparisons to the full California voter file was irrelevant to the specific legal question before the court. The department suggested that Judge Boasberg refer the matter for a criminal contempt investigation.

Alberto Lammers, a spokesman for the UCLA Voting Rights Project which conducted the analysis, responded to the government's claims. In an emailed statement, Lammers said that the plaintiffs' counsel and their experts fully complied with the court's orders. The project filed the case on behalf of the immigrant rights group.

In a separate but related case, the Justice Department appealed a ruling made by U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson on Friday night. Thompson, who sits in San Francisco, barred the department from requiring election offices to remove possible noncitizens from voter rolls or separate their ballots. The government noted that Thompson issued the ruling before the federal team had filed its initial arguments. Thompson set a hearing for Monday to address the appeal.

The Trump administration has lost several recent legal challenges regarding its noncitizen voter lists. A federal judge in California previously rejected the demand to force election officials to separate ballots, warning that last-minute orders could cause significant disruption to the state's election process. Two appellate judges later agreed with that assessment. California election officials argue the list contains numerous errors and that they lack the time to perform the legally required verification steps before the election.

The administration maintains that its list was compiled carefully from state voter registration data and federal citizenship records. The Justice Department has issued subpoenas to California election offices and warned that officials who knowingly allow ineligible voters to cast ballots could face criminal charges.