Making Daily Headlines · Page 4
DOJ Asks to Drop the Ballot Case It Brought
· New York time
The Justice Department moved to dismiss its own lawsuit seeking to stop California from counting roughly 20,000 ballots that it alleged went to noncitizens. The department's claim was an allegation, and its move to dismiss the case is not a court finding that the ballots were improperly issued or counted. The case had put a large number into the public debate over voting. The subsequent motion changes the legal course: rather than continuing to pursue the requested halt through that lawsuit, the department has asked to drop its own case. A filing and a dismissal request make for very different government announcements, even when they concern the same underlying claim. For California voters, the practical issue was whether the department would succeed in stopping those ballots from being counted. For the department, the immediate change is that it is no longer pressing ahead with that particular lawsuit. The episode is a reminder that the life of a legal claim can be considerably shorter than the headlines generated by its arrival. A government office can make a forceful entrance with a precise number and later return with a motion seeking the exit. The paperwork has not settled the truth of the original allegation; it has given the department's own case a notably abrupt second act.
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