Supreme Court allows Virginia to remove non-citizens from voter rolls
The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with Virginia, reversing a lower court ruling preventing the state from removing non-citizens from its voter rolls pending the outcome of ongoing litigation.
In an order released Wednesday, the Supreme Court announced that it had granted a request from the state of Virginia to stay an Oct. 25 decision from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruling that the state had violated federal law by removing voters believed to be non-citizens from the voter rolls within 90 days of the 2024 presidential election.
The decision came down along party lines, with the six justices appointed by Republican presidents siding with Virginia, while the three justices appointed by Democratic presidents preferred to uphold the lower court ruling in favor of the Department of Justice.
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Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas voted to grant the stay, while Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor would have denied the application.
The stay will remain in effect until a panel of judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issues a ruling on the appeal of the district court decision or if the Supreme Court grants a writ of certiorari to hear the case.
A three-judge panel consisting of Chief Judge Albert Diaz along with Judges Toby Heytens and Stephanie Thacker issued an order Sunday declining to grant the request of a stay of all aspects of the ruling except the portion calling for the state to “educate local officials, poll workers, and the general public” about the impact of the lower court decision and implement “tracking of poll worker training in all 95 counties and cities in the Commonwealth.”
All three judges on the panel were appointed by Democratic presidents. Diaz and Thacker were appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama, while Heytens was appointed by President Joe Biden.
The DOJ filed a lawsuit against Virginia earlier this month, alleging that the state had violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 by removing non-citizens from the voter rolls within 90 days of a federal election. Patricia Tolliver Giles, a federal judge appointed to the bench by Biden, ordered the state to restore the voting rights of individuals removed from the voter rolls after Aug. 7.
In a statement posted to X Wednesday, Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin praised the Supreme Court’s order as “a victory for commonsense and election fairness.”
Youngkin also expressed gratitude for the work of the state’s Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares “on this critical fight to protect the fundamental rights of U.S. citizens,” adding, “Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections.”
“Virginians can cast their ballots on Election Day knowing that Virginia’s elections are fair, secure, and free from politically-motivated interference,” he vowed. Youngkin’s reference to “politically-motivated interference” reflects his belief that political motivations on the part of the Biden administration’s DOJ prompted the lawsuit against the state, noting how it was filed less than a month before the 2024 election.
Youngkin has consistently maintained that the state’s actions are consistent with state law, which gives residents who identify as non-citizens at the Department of Motor Vehicles “14 days to affirm they are citizens” or be removed from the state's voter rolls, of which they should have never been added.
As Youngkin explained during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” last week, if residents cannot prove they are U.S. citizens, “they come off the voter rolls.”
The governor rejected the premise that the state has conducted a “systemic” purge of voter registrations within 90 days of a federal election in violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, characterizing the process the state engages in as “individualized.” He insisted that the actions taken by the state and singled out by the DOJ are “wholly consistent with the U.S. Constitution, the Virginia Constitution and Virginia law.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
