Attorney General Ellison opposes Trump DOJ’s frivolous challenge to California’s elections

Joins 22 AGs in arguing lawsuit has no constitutional basis, risks disenfranching eligible voters, and is deliberate act of bad faith

Amicus brief is latest action in long record of success in defending safety and integrity of Minnesota’s elections

October 22, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in opposition to the federal government’s recent baseless lawsuit against California’s elections. The lawsuit is part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the midterm elections, including Minnesota’s.

In the lawsuit, the administration wants to prevent California elections officials from counting the ballots of more than 20,000 individuals who the U.S. Department of Justice claims, without any proof, are “likely” noncitizens. This unverified claim echoes similar allegations the federal government made against 16,000 individuals in Nevada earlier this year — none of whom DOJ has confirmed to be noncitizens.

However, the Constitution empowers states to run elections in line with federal laws that Congress established, not nakedly political policies dictated by the President or the executive branch. The amicus brief that Attorney General Ellison and the coalition filed in this case argues that the Trump DOJ lawsuit has no constitutional basis, appears to be a deliberate act of bad faith by the administration, would portend chaos for state and local election officials nationwide if successful, and creates the intolerable risk of disenfranchising voters.

“Donald Trump and his minions keep showing they will stop at nothing to undermine our elections,” Attorney General Ellison said. “We, however, have the law and the constitution on our side, and I’ve been using both to defend Minnesota’s nation-leading elections and the elections in every state that Trump has baselessly attacked. Trump thinks your freedom to vote is contingent on voting only for candidates or parties he approves of. That’s one of the most deeply un-American things I can think of. I’ll never stop fighting to protect Minnesotans’ freedoms against Trump’s tyranny.”

The President has aggressively pushed false claims of widespread election fraud for years, which have been rejected by independent experts and dozens of court rulings where such challenges have been brought. In the last year, courts have rejected multiple executive orders and agency rules that would have taken control of elections from states, while Congress has refused to pass legislation demanded by the President that would have imposed new burdens on voters. The DOJ has also demanded confidential state voter registration lists and threatened state officials with prosecution, which more than two dozen courts have found illegal.

Now, less than two weeks before the midterm election, the DOJ continues making impossible and unconstitutional demands of state and local elections officials. Their lawsuit against California asserts the federal executive branch can direct state officials to either not count a person’s vote based on unverified allegations or else face criminal prosecution.

However, Congress has previously established detailed voter list maintenance requirements for states, consistent with its constitutional authority under the Election Clause, and DOJ’s lawsuit does not allege any violation of those requirements, Rather, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition argue that DOJ seeks in its lawsuit against California to invent new, unconstitutional powers over elections.

Attorney General Ellison’s record of success in defending Minnesota’s elections against illegal federal interference

This amicus brief is the latest step in Attorney General Ellison’s longstanding defense of Minnesota’s nation-leading elections against illegal federal interference. This work includes:

Joining Attorney General Ellison in filing the amicus brief are Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, who led the coalition, and the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.