联邦法官叫停司法部威胁地方选举官员处理选票行为Federal Judge Orders DOJ to Stop Threatening Election Officials over Ballots

在长达八页的裁定书中，联邦地区法院法官特里娜·汤普森针对特朗普政府施加了明确的司法约束，禁止联邦官员以涉嫌非公民选民为由，通过威胁、恐吓或胁迫等方式迫使州和地方选举官员停止处理选票。禁令范围覆盖至11月16日，下一场法庭听证会定于11月13日举行。裁决同时禁止司法部与国土安全部要求地方官员将登记选民除名、拒绝发票，或对选票进行隔离与拒不计票。

In an eight-page order, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson imposed strict legal prohibitions preventing federal officials from threatening, intimidating, or coercing state and local election workers into halting the processing of ballots based on claims that registered voters are ineligible. The temporary restraining order remains in effect through November 16, with the court scheduling the next hearing for November 13. The directive specifically bars the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from demanding that local officials purge registered voters from voting rolls, withhold ballots, or segregate and decline to tally returned votes.

汤普森法官指出，司法部与国土安全部高层官员在临近选举阶段展开的施压行动，可能违反了1965年《选举权法案》中禁止恐吓协助他人投票人员的条款，并且超出了联邦政府的法定与宪法职权。法官在裁决中表示，选民已开始投票且大量选票已经寄出，确保选举工作人员依法履职符合最高公共利益，因此公共利益和公平考量均支持原告方。

Judge Thompson concluded that the pre-election pressure campaign conducted by high-ranking DOJ and DHS officials likely breached the 1965 Voting Rights Act's bar on attempting to intimidate, threaten, or coerce individuals administering voting, while exceeding federal statutory and constitutional authority. With ballots already distributed and voters already participating ahead of Election Day, Thompson found that the paramount public interest in allowing election personnel to perform their duties under the law weighed decisively in favor of the plaintiffs.

这起紧急诉讼由服务业雇员国际工会（SEIU）与全国有色人种协进会（NAACP）、拉丁美洲公民联盟（LULAC）等民权团体在加利福尼亚北区联邦地区法院联合发起。原告在起诉书中指控，特朗普政府在选举临近之际的一系列举动，构成了对州级选举管辖权的违宪侵犯，且直接违反了《选举权法案》中保护选举工作人员不受恐吓的条款。

The emergency legal challenge was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by a coalition comprising the Service Employees International Union alongside civil rights organizations, including the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens. The plaintiffs alleged in their complaint that the Trump administration's escalated pressure tactics days before the midterms violated the Voting Rights Act and represented an unconstitutional intrusion into state control over election administration.

起诉书重点列举了司法部民权局长哈米特·迪隆（Harmeet Dhillon）今年7月向全美50个州以及华盛顿特区发出的正式信函。原告指出，迪隆在信中威胁对未能阻止非公民投票的地方选举官员追究刑事责任，结合联邦司法部门近期向地方强行索取疑似非公民登记选民名单的举措，构成了系统性胁迫，企图强行改变地方选票处理程序。

Central to the plaintiffs' lawsuit were actions taken by Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, who sent letters in July to all 50 states and Washington, D.C., warning that local election officials could face federal criminal prosecution. The complaint detailed that those threats, combined with recent federal demands compelling local authorities to produce lists of registered voters suspected of being noncitizens, amounted to an unlawful campaign intended to disrupt normal voting administration.

司法部此前向加利福尼亚州58个县中的57个发送了正式要求信，要求地方选举官员配合联邦针对非法投票的调查，否则地方官员自身可能面临调查。在10月22日发给圣贝纳迪诺县选举官员的一封信函中，联邦第一助理检察官比拉尔·埃赛利附上了一份包含1133名“疑似外国人”的选民登记名单，并要求县选举部门在48小时内承诺与司法部和国土安全部展开核查合作。

The Justice Department sent letters to election administrators across 57 of California's 58 counties, demanding their full cooperation with federal illegal voting probes or warning they could face federal scrutiny themselves. In an October 22 letter sent to an election official in San Bernardino County, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli attached a list containing 1,133 registered voters designated as suspected noncitizens. The letter demanded that local election authorities commit within 48 hours to partnering with the DOJ and Homeland Security to determine who among the flagged individuals was a lawful citizen.

埃赛利在信中要求地方官员提供涉案选民登记记录关联的非公开个人信息，包括社会安全号码、州身份证件或驾照信息。对于无法核实公民身份的选民，信函要求地方官员立即指示相关人员隔离而非取消其邮寄选票，直到身份查明。埃赛利声称该名单由国土安全部通过多层级、多机构调查方法生成，并警告称纵容或无视联邦犯罪将面临显著的法律后果。

Essayli instructed county administrators to produce nonpublic registration data tied to each identified individual, specifically requesting Social Security numbers, state-issued identification cards, and driver's license numbers. For voters whose citizenship could not be immediately verified, the letter demanded that officials segregate rather than cancel their returned vote-by-mail ballots until conclusive determinations were made. Stating that the list had been compiled through an interagency Homeland Security investigative methodology, Essayli cautioned that the legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring federal election crimes would be significant.

联邦政府此次行动的核心依据是国土安全部主导的一项争议性数据比对操作，该操作将各州选民登记名册与联邦数据库进行比对。多地选举官员指出，国土安全部据此生成的疑似非公民名单并不可靠，其中包含了具备合法身份的美国公民，因此强行依据该名单隔离选票极易导致合法选民被剥夺投票资格。多名联邦法官目前正在对这一筛查手段及相关诉讼进行审理。

At the heart of the federal administration's pre-election intervention is a disputed data-matching operation spearheaded by the Department of Homeland Security, which compared state voter rolls against federal records. Election officials have stated that the resulting lists of suspected noncitizens are unreliable and mistakenly include legitimate U.S. citizens, warning that segregating ballots based on those files risks disenfranchising lawful voters. Several judges across multiple jurisdictions are now reviewing the validity of that data-matching methodology in pending litigation.

汤普森法官在裁决中驳斥了联邦政府关于地方官员若不阻止非公民投票即可被追责的说法。裁定书明确确认，州和地方政府雇员依法履行分发、处理或清点选票等选举职责时，即便处理的个别选票属于联邦部门指控不具备投票资格的选民，也不违反联邦刑法，从而为依法履职的基层工作人员提供了直接的司法豁免保障。

Judge Thompson also directly refuted the Justice Department's assertions that election workers could face criminal culpability for processing ballots flagged by federal investigators. Her ruling established that when state and local personnel carry out the work of distributing, processing, or counting ballots in accordance with the law, they commit no federal criminal offense, even if a disputed ballot belongs to a registered voter alleged by the administration to be ineligible, shielding local staff from prosecution threats.

除禁止起诉威胁外，汤普森法官还在裁定中对联邦调查手段设立了专项司法通报机制。法院命令联邦政府通知所有收到争议信函的州和地方部门，告知信中的起诉威胁与要求已被法院制止。同时，裁决要求司法部向法庭全面通报与涉案选民名单有关的所有待决搜查令申请、大陪审团传票或调取选票与选举材料的要求。此前，司法部曾在加利福尼亚州施压地方官员分离约两万名所谓非公民的邮寄选票，并向洛杉矶县选举官员发出了大陪审团传票。

Beyond halting prosecution threats, Judge Thompson established specific court oversight over the administration's investigatory tools. The directive compels federal officials to formally notify every state and local jurisdiction that received the disputed DOJ letters that the demands and criminal prosecution threats have been blocked by the court. Furthermore, the judge ordered the Justice Department to report all pending search warrant applications, grand jury subpoenas, or other demands seeking access to election materials and ballots tied to its lists of disputed voters. The Justice Department had earlier pressured California officials to isolate mail-in ballots for approximately 20,000 alleged noncitizens and issued grand jury subpoenas to election officials in Los Angeles County.

这项紧急限制令是在司法部近期于多地法庭接连遇阻的态势下做出的。在加利福尼亚州，另一名联邦地区法官周三刚驳回了司法部强制该州扣留两万多张选票的请求，指出该要求违背了赋予各州选举管理权的宪法原则；联邦上诉巡回法院也对此类紧急要求提出质疑。而在华盛顿州，联邦政府要求该州隔离所谓非公民选票的类似诉讼目前仍在审理中，联邦法官正对相关数据审查及干预措施进行多方司法审查。

The emergency order follows a series of recent judicial setbacks for the Justice Department's voting initiatives in other courtrooms. Earlier in the week, another federal district judge in California rejected the department's request to compel the state to set aside more than 20,000 ballots, finding the maneuver violated longstanding constitutional principles granting states primary authority over election administration, while a federal appeals court also ruled against the administration's emergency bid. Concurrently, a parallel lawsuit brought by the federal government seeking to force Washington state to segregate ballots from suspected noncitizens remains pending, placing federal intervention efforts under mounting judicial scrutiny across multiple states.