# Trina Thompson **Trina L. Thompson** is a United States district judge for the **Northern District of California**, based in San Francisco. She was nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in May 2022, taking her seat that August. Before joining the federal bench she spent nearly twenty years as a judge on the Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland, where she had earlier served as a juvenile court commissioner. She is on this site for one ruling. On **October 30, 2026**, four days before the midterm election, she issued the emergency order described at [[Election Worker Intimidation Litigation 2026]] — the first court order anywhere to **legally prohibit** the [[Department of Justice]] and the [[Department of Homeland Security]] from threatening state and local election officials with criminal prosecution for counting ballots. ## The order, in her own words Other judges hearing related cases had told the government to stop making such threats. Thompson was the first to make it an enforceable command, and she explained why she would not wait for the government's reply before doing so: > [!quote] Judge Trina Thompson, October 30, 2026 > "One of the hallmarks of a fair election is the freedom to exercise the right to vote free from threat, fear, or intimidation. Free exercise of the right to vote is a core tenet of our democracy. It requires safeguarding to ensure full participation and public trust in our elections. Election Day is around the corner. Ballots have already been issued. Americans have already begun voting. Workers have already begun processing ballots. Given the consequences of inaction, the Court sees no reason to delay its ruling." She found that the conduct alleged — a campaign by senior officials to "intimidate, threaten, and coerce" the people administering the election — likely violated the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], the [[Elections Clause]], and the Fifth and Tenth Amendments, and that whatever the government's stated purpose, its actions were "likely to have the effect of interfering with election administration and disenfranchising lawful voters." The Justice Department objected that she had ruled "without even waiting to hear from the United States" and appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals the following day. ## Why she's on the map A district judge is not usually a figure in a story about national power. Thompson is here because the 2026 election-interference track ran through the courts rather than through Congress, and the question of whether a federal department may threaten the clerks who count votes was answered, first and bindingly, by one trial judge in San Francisco four days before the polls opened. ## Connections - [[Election Worker Intimidation Litigation 2026]] — the case her order came from - [[DOJ California Noncitizen Ballot Litigation 2026]] — the ballot demands that prompted it - [[United States v. State of Alaska]] — the parallel certification suit, dismissed two days later - [[Sharon Gleason]] — the judge who dismissed it - [[Todd Blanche]] · [[Markwayne Mullin]] — the officials named as defendants - [[Elections Clause]] · [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]]