Just weeks ahead of the midterm election, a federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden took aim at the federal law barring foreigners from voting in American elections, characterizing it as “unconstitutional.”
Chelsea Cox is a Jamaican national who came to the United States on a tourist visa in 1999. According to the Justice Department, Cox — who never bothered going home after her visa expired and presently has no legal status in the country — used a fraudulent U.S. Virgin Islands birth certificate to obtain a Florida driver’s license in April 2000.
‘Leftist judges are trying to invalidate the federal law prohibiting noncitizen voting.’
Cox was charged in the Southern District of Florida last October for allegedly using her false identity to vote unlawfully in the 2020 election. Citing Cox’s voter history, the Justice Department alleged that the Jamaican also voted in the general elections in 2012, 2016, and 2018.
Federal law — 18 U.S.C. § 611 — prohibits any foreign national from voting “in any election held solely or in part for the purpose of electing a candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, Delegate from the District of Columbia, or Resident Commissioner” unless he or she permanently resided in the U.S. prior to turning 16, has citizen parents, and/or reasonably believed at the time of voting that he or she was a citizen.
The Jamaican’s attorney argued that the states, not Congress, alone “can establish the qualifications of electors for federal elections” and that as such, Section 611 is “facially unconstitutional.”
RELATED: Trump administration revokes visas for HISTORIC number of noncitizens
Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic/Getty Images
U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz, the Biden-appointed nephew of billionaire car magnate Norman Braman, embraced the defense’s argument and dismissed the case on Thursday, stating that “the text, structure, and original public meaning of the Constitution show that Congress does not have the constitutional power to enact this statute.”
Leibowitz rejected the government’s arguments that the law can be “‘sustained on the basis of Congress’ broad authority over immigration and foreign affairs,’ which empowers Congress to legislate against ‘[f]oreign interference in elections,'” claiming that while such authority is “broad indeed,”
the Court finds no reason to conclude that an exercise of Congress’s “plenary powers” over immigration and foreign affairs would override the “foundational constitutional constraints” set out in the Voter Qualification Clauses.
While the Miami-based Biden judge said that “one can assume that the Defendant committed every element of the crime established by Section 611,” he concluded ultimately that “Chelsea Cox cannot be prosecuted for an alleged violation of an unconstitutional statute.”
Leibowitz did, however, note that Florida can “prohibit and punish the exact conduct Defendant Cox allegedly engaged in here,” and that this case does not address whether the Trump administration can deport Cox.
Blaze News did not immediately receive a response from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office.
Bruce Udolf, an attorney for the Jamaican, told NBC News that his client was “ecstatic” over the ruling.
“We were gratified by the court’s ruling and would hope that the government would not take this matter further as far as deportation is concerned,” said Udolf. “This person has lived peacefully and responsibly in this country for 30 years, and she is in very ill health and desperately needs a medical attention that would not otherwise be available to her in Jamaica.”
The Biden judge’s ruling was condemned by those keen to see only Americans voting in American elections.
James Percival, general counsel for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said of Leibowitz’s ruling, “A Biden appointed judge in Florida says that federal bans on noncitizen voting are unconstitutional. The thing that never happens is now ‘constitutionally protected activity!'”
“First leftist senators blocked the SAVE America Act, insisting that ‘noncitizens don’t vote.’ Now leftist judges are trying to invalidate the federal law prohibiting noncitizen voting,” wrote Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R). “If you find this unacceptable, vote for Republicans in November.”
The government has appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Election, Joe biden, Florida, Noncitizen voting, Midterm elections, Stop the steal, Politics
