A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel heard emergency oral argument on October 25 on the DOJ's bid to segregate California midterm ballots, then rejected the bid to force the state to set aside the ballots the federal government calls non-citizen ballots. At argument, DOJ lawyer Matt Donnelly could not say where the 20,000-name voter database or the thumb drive came from, and a Trump-appointed judge on the two-to-one panel questioned DOJ's elections-clause authority to block the ballots. Judge Carter, hearing the underlying case, has written that DOJ's actions show a broad ongoing pattern of attempted election interference by federal officials. The provenance of the database and the scope of the elections clause remain open, and California has warned it will seek…