The Biden-Harris Department of Justice sued Virginia earlier this month in hopes of killing an initiative aimed at removing thousands of suspected noncitizens from the commonwealth’s voter rolls.
The Youngkin administration fought back and won.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares
noted, “I am pleased to announce that the US Supreme Court granted Virginia’s emergency stay to keep noncitizens off our voter rolls.”
In a
6-3 ruling Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily overruled Democrat-appointed 4th Circuit judges and halted a Biden-appointed judge’s order, thereby allowing Virginia to resume the work of making sure that only American citizens can vote in next week’s election.
Liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
The stay means that Virginia — where the latest
Quantus Insights poll indicates Kamala Harris and President Donald Trump are virtually tied — will not have to put over 1,500 suspected noncitizens back onto its voter rolls before Election Day.
‘Kamala’s Administration sued Virginia and is now arguing to the US Supreme Court that non-citizens must remain on the voter rolls.’
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin
said in a statement, “We are pleased by the Supreme Court’s order today. This is a victory for commonsense and election fairness. I am grateful for the work of Attorney General Jason Miyares on this critical fight to protect the fundamental rights of U.S. citizens.”
“Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections,” continued Youngkin. “Virginians can cast their ballots on Election Day knowing that Virginia’s elections are fair, secure, and free from politically motivated interference.”
Dozens of red states backed Virginia’s defense along with the Republican National Committee.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill tweeted, “Huge victory for election integrity! SCOTUS grants Virginia’s emergency stay to keep noncitizens off its voter roles. Proud to have joined my fellow AGs in support of the American people and our most sacred right.”
Murrill was among the 27 state attorneys general who filed an amicus brief asking the high court to allow Virginia to resume the work of ensuring the integrity of the election.
The amicus brief noted, “Non-citizens are not eligible voters. They were not eligible voters before Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, they were not eligible when Congress passed the NVRA, and they are not eligible today.”
Ahead of the ruling, RNC chairman Michael Whatley
stated, “With only one week to our country’s most important election, Democrats are now taking extraordinary measures to keep non-citizens on voter rolls. Kamala’s Administration sued Virginia and is now arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that non-citizens must remain on the voter rolls.”
Blaze News
previously reported that the DOJ sued the state over Youngkin’s Aug. 7 executive order, which requires both the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections to routinely update voter lists to remove individuals identified as noncitizens and that the state Department of Motor Vehicles must expedite the interagency data-sharing with the DOE with regard to noncitizen transactions.
According to the DOJ, the election integrity initiative violated Section 8(c)(2) of the National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to complete programs intended to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from registration lists by no later than 90 days prior to a primary election or general election for federal office.
Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia agreed with the DOJ, claiming the removals of suspected noncitizens amounted to a “clear violation” of the NVRA. Giles ordered Virginia to reinstate those individuals whose registrations were canceled under the program, including suspected noncitizens.
Virginia asked the 4th Circuit to put a hold on Giles’ order, but two Obama-appointed judges and another Biden appointee denied their request Sunday, prompting the state to file for an emergency stay of the injunction hours later.
The commonwealth’s
emergency application stated that the injunction sought by the Biden-Harris DOJ will “irreparably injure Virginia’s sovereignty, confuse her voters, overload her election machinery and administrators, and likely lead noncitizens to think they are permitted to vote, a criminal offense that will cancel the franchise of eligible voters.”
According to Virginia, the program did not violate the NVRA as it was an individualized removal process. Further, the state stressed that Giles’ injunction was based on a provision of the NVRA that “does not even apply to the removal of noncitizens and other voter registrations that are void ab initio.”
The state told the high court that of the over 1,600 suspected noncitizens whom Giles ordered back onto the voter rolls:
About 600 of these individuals personally informed Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) that they are not citizens, and about 1,000 presented noncitizen residency documents to DMV and were then positively identified as noncitizens through the United States’ own Systematic Alerian Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.
The Supreme Court did not indicate which of the state’s arguments ultimately prompted its decision.
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Supreme court, Virginia, Commonwealth, Voters, Election fraud, Election integrity, Noncitizen, Noncitizens, Election 2024, Trump, Harris, Politics
