25 states are seeking urgent Supreme Court intervention after a federal appeals court ruled that Virginia must restore 1,600 non-citizens to its voter rolls just nine days before the 2024 general election. That request, filed on Monday, challenges an injunction requiring the state to place self-identified noncitizens back on voter lists, a decision that state attorneys general say is a “last-minute attack” on the election’s integrity.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is part of the 25-state amicus brief urging the high court to grant Virginia’s emergency motion so that the Commonwealth is not forced to place noncitizens on its voter rolls for the upcoming election.
“The Constitution gives States the power to detect and remove noncitizens on their voter rolls,” said Attorney General Marshall. “Shockingly, the Biden-Harris administration has demanded that federal courts intrude on that power—making it easier for noncitizens to vote in Virginia. States should not be required to wait and see if people who identify as noncitizens will vote. The Supreme Court must act to protect election integrity and state efforts to identify fraud before it happens.”
The Kansas-led amicus brief signed onto by AG Marshall and other states claim that the federal district court’s decision encroaches on states’ constitutional authority to set voter qualifications. The brief argues that by stopping Virginia from removing noncitizens, the court effectively mandates noncitizen voting, which is unconstitutional.
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There are more than 250,000 illegal immigrants living in the commonwealth, according to the Migration Policy Institute. There is no federal mandate that noncitizens be allowed to vote simply because their registration is discovered within 90 days of an election, the brief argues.
Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is suing the State of Alabama and Secretary of State Wes Allen for removing more than 3,000 names from its list of registered voters in a purge of non-citizens from being able to vote in the state.
“The upcoming election is hotly contested and has caused division around the country. Perhaps the division would be lower if the federal government were not interfering with the election via last-minute attacks on state efforts to police voter qualifications,” the brief reads.
“Noncitizens are not eligible voters. They were not eligible voters before Congress passed the NVRA, they were not eligible when Congress passed the NVRA, and they are not eligible voters today. Congress was clearly concerned with State laws that removed previously eligible citizens from the voter rolls.”
Grayson Everett is the state and political editor for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270
