By Tierney Sneed, CNN
(CNN) – A federal judge has issued a broad emergency order stopping various aggressive methods used by the Trump administration recently to pressure election officials nationwide.
“Although Defendants claim that their actions are designed to halt unlawful voting by noncitizens, their actions are likely to have the effect of interfering with election administration and disenfranchising lawful voters,” US District Judge Trina Thompson said in her opinion granting a temporary restraining order Friday evening.
She stated that while her order is active, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security cannot require election officials in any state to separate ballots, remove voters from voter rolls, or stop processing ballots. Thompson, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, is also prohibiting threats of criminal charges against election officials from those agencies and mentioned that the administration cannot take other actions that “threaten, intimidate or coerce” election officials into making changes in ballot processing procedures based on claims about voter ineligibility.
Thompson’s opinion criticized assertions made by the administration for months claiming they could and would prosecute election officials for not doing enough to prevent illegal voting.
“When state and local government employees perform the work of distributing, processing, or counting ballots or otherwise administering the 2026 midterm election” in accordance with the law, “they do not violate federal criminal law even if a particular ballot belongs to a registered voter alleged by Defendants to be ineligible to vote,” she wrote.
She is also requiring that the administration inform her of any “search warrant applications, grand jury subpoenas, or other demands to access election materials or ballots” related to lists created by the administration alleging individuals are ineligible to vote.
The judge set her order to expire November 16. CNN has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
The-CNN-Wire
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