“Fox News says Justice Kagan denied the California ballot request alone; the docket says she referred it to the full Court”

The claim: “Fox News says Justice Kagan denied the California ballot request alone; the docket says she referred it to the full Court”

Why we rated it this way: Fox News reported that Justice Elena Kagan denied the Trump administration's request to segregate more than 20,000 California mail-in ballots without comment, and that she did not refer it to the other justices. A denial without comment does not tell us who decided it, and the Supreme Court's docket for No. 26A624 answers the question directly: it lists the application as "referred to the Court" and records that the application "presented to Justice Kagan and by her referred to the Court is denied." The key question: if the docket says Justice Kagan referred the application to the Court, how was it denied without going to the other justices? Fox's opening line, that the Supreme Court rejected the request on Nov. 2, matches the record.