On Thursday, the highest court of New York City declared the state’s noncitizen election law illegal.
The New York State Court of Appeals declared 6-1 that the 2021 law was in violation of the state law, finding that” Article II, Section 1 of New York’s Constitution restricts the right to vote to people” and calling that summary “hardly novel.”
The court held that the appellants “fundamentally misunderstood” some traditional statutes they cited in order to make their situation.” Whatever the future may bring, the New York Constitution as it stands now draws a strong line restricting election to citizens,” the jury held.
The prosecutor argued that “it takes but a second to understand” that these traditional statutes did not intend to “enfranchise noncitizens.”
The Next Judicial Department’s administrative section of the state Supreme Court recently rejected the law, with Justice Paul Wooten claiming that it “infringed the New York State Constitution and Municipal Home Rule Law.” That choice upheld a lower court’s earlier ruling.
The law would have allowed up to 800, 000 noncitizens to cast ballot in municipal elections, and as previously stated in the Second Judicial Department decision, “noncitizens could potentially make up 15 % or more of the electorate in future elections… which is greater than the margin of victory in many municipal elections.”
In the race for governor, government associate, borough president, comptroller, and open advocate, noncitizens would have been able to cast a ballot. Any noncitizen who ( 1 ) was a “lawful permanent resident or authorized to work in the United States,” ( 2 ) had resided in the Big Apple for at least 30 consecutive days, and ( 3 ) met all requirements for registering or preregistering to vote under the election law, excluding having United States citizenship, would have been able to cast a ballot under the law.
The 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution, which states that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged… on account of race, color, or previous state of servitude, is challenged by the Public Interest Legal Foundation.
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley described the decision as a” HUGE Election Integrity success” in a blog on X.
The RNC sued to prevent New York City Democrats from adding more than 800,000 non-citizens to their voter rolls.
Whatley wrote in his article that” Now, the state’s highest court ruled in our favour, upholding the citizen condition to vote”, adding that after fighting for more than three times.
The Federalist’s election correspondent, Brianna Lyman. With a degree in international political economy, Brianna received her degree from Fordham University. Her work has appeared on RealClearPolitics, Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax. Follow Brianna on X as @briannalyman2
