Courts hit the Trump administration with two election-eve rulings, blocking DOJ threats to election workers and pulling taxpayer-funded campaign ads

Courts put the brakes on two election-eve federal campaigns

With four days until the November 3 midterms, two federal judges issued rulings Friday that directly constrained how the Trump administration can act in the final stretch of the campaign. One stopped the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from threatening election workers with criminal prosecution over disputed ballots. The other pulled three taxpayer-funded government ads off the air and off social media. Together, the decisions amounted to the most direct judicial intervention in federal election conduct this cycle.

The more sweeping ruling came Friday evening from U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson of the Northern District of California. Thompson issued a temporary restraining order Friday, October 30, blocking the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from pressuring election officials to stop processing ballots or set aside votes based solely on the administration's claims that certain registered voters are ineligible. The order, confirmed by CNN, NBC News, and CBS News, runs through November 16, nearly two weeks past Election Day.

Thompson, appointed by President Biden, wrote in plain terms what she found the government was doing. "In the lead-up to the election, high-ranking DOJ and DHS officials have engaged in a campaign to intimidate, threaten, and coerce state and local officials and employees who are engaged in administering the ongoing midterm 2026 election," Thompson wrote.

The practical scope of the order is broad. While her order is in place, the Justice Department and DHS cannot demand that election officials in any state segregate ballots, purge voters from rolls, or halt ballot processing. Thompson is also blocking threats of criminal prosecutions against election officials and said that the administration cannot take other actions that "threaten, intimidate or coerce" election officials to demand changes in ballot processing procedures on claims the voters are ineligible.

Thompson said the Justice Department and DHS likely violated the Voting Rights Act by threatening election workers for processing ballots the administration claims are ineligible. The order also barred the administration from demanding that election officials remove registered voters from voter rolls, refuse to issue them ballots, or segregate or decline to count their ballots based solely on those allegations. Thompson noted: "Ballots have already been issued."

Thompson issued the ruling after the Justice Department sent letters to election officials in 57 of California's 58 counties. The California campaign was part of a national push. The Justice Department sent letters to 29 states and Washington, D.C., threatening investigations and demanding that they preserve records and voter data from the 2024 election, even though federal law already requires jurisdictions to preserve records for 22 months after an election.

Since May 2025, the DOJ has filed 31 lawsuits seeking sensitive voter records. Central to the administration's efforts is a controversial data-matching operation DHS has spearheaded that compared state voter lists with federal records. DOJ has defended its election-related actions as necessary to enforce federal prohibitions on noncitizen voting.

The administration was already losing ground in other courts before Friday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the administration does not have the right to intervene in how states verify citizenship status. In a Friday ruling, a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration's request to force California election officials to segregate ballots that it says are from noncitizens. The DOJ appealed Thompson's order on Saturday.

Thompson is also requiring the administration to inform her of any "search warrant applications, grand jury subpoenas, or other demands to access election materials or ballots" that have been issued related to lists the administration has created to allege individuals are ineligible to vote. That transparency requirement is unusual and gives the court ongoing oversight of federal investigative steps through the election and its immediate aftermath.

The ad ruling: three government commercials pulled

Hours before Thompson's order, a separate federal judge in New York dealt the administration a different kind of setback. U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon ordered the federal government to pull three taxpayer-funded Trump administration ads that appear to have been made for political or propaganda purposes, including one touting the president's claim that every American will get $5,000 if Republicans keep control of Congress.

The federal government was ordered to take down the advertisements titled "$5,000 to Americans," "Every Democrat Voted Against No Tax on Tips," and "Cost of Socialism." The ads must be taken off official government websites, including social media platforms such as YouTube and Instagram. Rochon also ordered that any slots, placements, reservations, or arrangements for airing or distributing the ads through authorized third parties, including Trump's flagship super PAC MAGA Inc., be canceled.

The complaint was brought by a coalition including nonprofit Common Cause, which said the ads "use public funds for partisan propaganda." The plaintiffs had originally sought the removal of at least 13 ads, but Rochon declined to remove the others.

"This court can neither postpone an election nor turn back the clock," Rochon said after concluding that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claims regarding the ads and would suffer harm if they were not taken down. She warned, however, that she could reverse herself and restore the ads, or ban additional ads, after hearing more evidence in the coming weeks.

The White House rejected both rulings. White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said: "This Biden-appointed activist judge issued a lawless order to stop the administration from sharing patriotic videos."

A broader pattern of judicial limits

The twin rulings land inside a broader, months-long confrontation between the administration and the federal judiciary over election administration. The administration has pursued an executive order signed in February 2026, which threatened states with federal lawsuits or federal funding losses if they counted mail-in ballots received after Election Day, and empowered DHS and the Department of Government Efficiency to compare state voter registration lists with federal immigration databases. Courts have repeatedly narrowed those tools. The administration asked the Supreme Court to restore its access to the expanded SAVE database, while conceding that a separate federal law prevented use of the expanded SAVE to "systematically" purge voter rolls within 90 days of the 2026 midterms.

The lame-duck Congress is not in session. Members of both chambers are scheduled to return to Washington on November 9 for a five-week lame-duck session, with the top priority being funding the federal government beyond December 11, 2026. That means no legislative vehicle exists to address, modify, or respond to either ruling before Election Day.

A separate underlying order in the California case, by Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin, found that federal threats had already caused citizens to "withdraw from participating in electoral activity." That finding, if it survives appellate review, could have consequences well beyond the immediate TRO.

What to Watch

• The DOJ has already appealed Thompson's order to the 9th Circuit. Watch for an emergency ruling over the weekend or early Monday, before polls open Tuesday, November 3.
• The Rochon ad ruling carries a caveat: she said she could reverse herself or expand the ban after hearing more evidence. A follow-up hearing date has not been publicly set.
• The administration's concession that it cannot use expanded SAVE data for systematic voter-roll purges within 90 days of the election leaves open what it can do starting November 4, the day after Election Day.
• Watch whether DOJ files search-warrant applications or grand jury subpoenas for election materials in the coming days. Thompson's order requires her to be notified of any such actions, putting that process on a short leash through at least November 16.
• Common Cause and the other plaintiffs in the ad case are still pressing claims against the remaining 10-plus government ads Rochon declined to pull Friday. A broader ruling could come before Thanksgiving.

Sources: CNN | NBC News | CBS News | Axios | AP/PBS NewsHour | The Washington Post | Wikipedia: Election law under the second Trump administration