Biden Judge Calls It ‘Constitutional Bedrock’ to Oppose Federal Ban on Noncitizen Voting

A Biden-appointed judge ruled that Congress cannot ban noncitizens from voting, striking federal charges against an illegal alien alleged to have voted in multiple federal elections in Florida.

U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz of the Southern District of Florida ruled that the Constitution only gives power to the states to regulate elections. Thus, he said, the federal government could not ban noncitizens from voting, but he said states could impose such a ban, the Washington Times reported.

“Congress has no power to say who can vote or who cannot vote in federal elections,” Leibowitz wrote. “Some legal principles are so fundamental that they form American constitutional bedrock, and this case reveals a big one: When you’re prosecuted based on a law that Congress did not have the authority to pass, the prosecution cannot stand.”

A Republican-controlled Congress passed, and Democratic President Bill Clinton signed, a 1996 law that forbids noncitizen voting. This ruling did not strike down the 1996 law but, for now, applied only to a single case involving the misdemeanor charge against Chelsea Cox, an illegal immigrant charged last October with voting in the 2020 election.

This comes amid a crackdown by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security against noncitizens who have voted. The ruling also comes as Republicans in Congress have pushed the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.

Prosecutors said Cox used a fake birth certificate, falsely claiming to be from the U.S. Virgin Islands, to get a Florida driver’s license and register to vote.

Prosecutors say she also voted in the 2012, 2016, and 2018 elections, but those alleged offenses fell outside the statute of limitations. But that wouldn’t have made a difference to the judge if the alleged votes had not fallen outside the statute of limitations.

He said Congress has the power to regulate the times, places, and manner of federal elections. But he said that power cannot be stretched to barring noncitizens from voting. He also argued that noncitizens voted in the original 13 colonies.

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