Justice Department seeks contempt charges against group analyzing voter list

The Justice Department asked a federal judge on Sunday to consider holding an immigrant rights group and its attorneys in contempt of court. The request follows the group's decision to publish an analysis of a database containing names of suspected noncitizens registered to vote in California.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg granted the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, access to the data on Friday. The list contains more than 20,000 individuals whom the Trump administration alleges are noncitizen voters. Boasberg, who is based in Washington, D.C., ordered the plaintiffs to keep the names confidential and use the data solely to prove their legal standing in the case.

Attorneys for the group filed papers on Saturday revealing the results of their review. Their analysis found that more than 40% of the people on the list do not appear in the state’s voter file. The report also identified 22 individuals who were likely naturalized U.S. citizens and indicated that thousands more citizens were included on the list.

In a filing submitted on Sunday, the Justice Department argued that the group's analysis was irrelevant to their standing. The department stated that the report focused on alleged inaccuracies affecting California voters generally rather than the specific plaintiffs in the case. It described the work as political grandstanding that violated the court's order.

The filing suggested that Judge Boasberg refer the matter to the Justice Department for an investigation into possible criminal contempt. Alberto Lammers, a spokesman for the UCLA Voting Rights Project, which handled the data analysis, responded via email. He stated that plaintiffs' counsel and their experts fully complied with the court's orders.

The Justice Department also appealed a separate ruling on Sunday. U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson in San Francisco had barred the department from demanding that election offices remove possible noncitizens from voter rolls. Thompson's decision on Friday night also stopped the department from separating ballots or threatening legal action. The Justice Department noted that Thompson ruled before the government could file its initial arguments. Thompson scheduled a hearing on the appeal for Monday.

This legal battle is part of a wider effort by the administration to use its lists of alleged noncitizen voters. Federal judges in California have previously rejected demands to force election officials to separate ballots cast by those voters. One judge wrote that such last-minute orders could wreak havoc on the state’s election, a view shared by two appellate judges.

California election officials argue the list is filled with errors and that they lack the time to perform the required work to remove voters from the rolls before the election. They note that voters attest to being U.S. citizens when they register and risk felony prosecution if they vote while ineligible. The administration maintains that its list was compiled carefully from state registration data and federal citizenship records. It has issued subpoenas for election offices and warned that officials who knowingly let noncitizens vote could face criminal charges.