A divided Ninth Circuit panel has refused to stay a preliminary injunction limiting parts of a federal voter-fraud initiative while the government appeals.
The case was brought by the California Nurses Association, National Nurses United, local governments and voting-rights organisations. The district court found that the Department of Homeland Security had assembled target lists from multiple data sources, including records whose citizenship information could be inaccurate, and used those lists for door-to-door interviews in the weeks before the midterm election.
The appellate majority concluded that the government had not shown a likelihood of success sufficient to suspend the injunction. The order keeps the district court’s interim restraints in effect; it does not finally decide the legality of the programme. The court also denied the government’s request for an administrative stay.
A separate order records that the court declined rehearing en banc, over a dissent. The panel’s October 30 official order sets out the programme and the stay analysis.
