Trump v. California · ¶79

Officials in the Plaintiff States are also presently impacted by an existing “credible threat of criminal prosecution.” ＿＿＿ F. 4th, at ＿＿＿, App. 13a. That threat of prosecution burdens the Plaintiff States’ “sovereign interests” and has already facilitated “unprecedented levels of involvement by federal officials in how [S]tates administer elections” as directed by the Order. Ibid. (internal quotation marks omitted). But the majority contends that “[w]ithout a textual basis for their concerns,”—meaning apparently that there is no basis for prosecuting state officials in the Order’s language or the text of any statute—“the States lack a well-founded fear that they will be prosecuted for not using the Lists.” Ante, at 6 (internal quotation marks omitted). Yet even if prosecution is textually unfounded, the Government has made it explicitly clear, including before this Court, that it might…

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