The Supreme Court on Monday denied the Trump administration’s bid to sequester mail ballots from California voters whom the federal government claimed it had “identified as likely noncitizens.”

The rejection came in an unexplained order without any justices noting dissent. That is not unusual for emergency litigation. But a notable aspect of this rejection of the administration is how quickly it came from the full court and without the court even calling for a response from the opposing party first.

The Department of Justice turned to the high court after a divided appellate panel refused to order the Democratic-led state to separate out more than 20,000 ballots and establish a process to verify the citizenship status of those voters before counting them.

The two panel judges in the majority were appointees of Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. They said the state already had a verification process and that the DOJ was trying to subvert the constitutional system for how elections are conducted. The majority also raised concerns about disenfranchising lawful voters while questioning the reliability of the government’s data.

The dissenting panel judge, also a Trump appointee, said the DOJ only sought “modest” relief that “would not cancel any vote but would allow time to verify the eligibility of suspected noncitizens.”

In its Supreme Court application Monday, the DOJ leaned on that dissent from Judge Patrick Bumatay, who has been floated as a potential high court pick if Trump makes another appointment during his second term. Whether he has an opportunity to do so hinges, in part, on the Senate’s composition after the Election Day results are tallied.

The DOJ quoted Bumatay in support of its argument that segregating ballots doesn’t threaten disenfranchisement but rather “just gives election officials a chance to determine whether ballots are legal.”

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