DOJ seeks contempt for voter data analysis

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 followed the group's release of an analysis challenging the administration's list of suspected noncitizen voters in California.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg granted the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, access to federal data on Friday. The data covers 20,000 individuals the Trump administration alleges are noncitizen voters in the state. Boasberg ordered the plaintiffs to use the data only for standing arguments and prohibited them from disclosing names.

On Saturday, CHIRLA attorneys filed papers stating their analysis found more than 40% of the people on the list do not appear in the state's voter file. The filing also identified 22 individuals on the list who were likely naturalized U.S. citizens. The lawyers noted that thousands more citizens appeared to be on the list.

The Justice Department argued in a Sunday filing that the analysis was irrelevant to the plaintiffs' legal standing. The department stated that the report's focus on general inaccuracies and comparisons to the full California voter file violated the judge's specific orders.

"The report's political grandstanding about alleged inaccuracies that purportedly impact California voters generally, or comparisons between the government's list and the full 'California voter file,' has no relevance to whether the particular plaintiffs in this case have standing," the filing read. The department suggested Boasberg refer the matter for investigation into possible criminal contempt.

Alberto Lammers, a spokesman for the UCLA Voting Rights Project, which conducted the analysis for CHIRLA, said in an emailed statement that the plaintiffs' counsel and experts fully complied with the court's orders.

In a separate case, the Justice Department appealed a ruling from Friday night by U.S. District Court Judge Trina L. Thompson in San Francisco. Thompson's decision barred the department from demanding election offices remove possible noncitizens from rolls, separate ballots, or threaten legal action. The department noted Thompson ruled before the government could file its initial arguments. Thompson scheduled a hearing on the appeal for Monday.

California election officials contend the list contains errors and that they lack time to complete the legal steps required to remove voters before the election. The administration says it compiled the list from state voter registration data and federal citizenship records. It has issued subpoenas to California election offices and warned officials that knowingly allowing noncitizens to vote could lead to criminal charges.