On Wednesday, the U. S. Supreme Court struck down an effort by the Biden-Harris Justice Department to preserve noncitizens on Virginia’s voter rolls.
In a one-page order, the world’s highest judge granted an emergency request by the state to spot a sit on a lower court decision that prohibited state election officials from removing about 1, 600″ self-identified” noncitizens from Virginia’s voter registration names. A three-judge panel of Democratic appointees on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court’s decision on Sunday after it was approved by a Biden-appointed judge.
The Supreme Court’s granting of Virginia’s request seemingly fell along partisan lines, with all three Democrat justices voting to “deny the application”.
The dispute started in August, when Republican Gov. Before the November election, Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order and an order directing Virginia agencies to maintain voter lists and other election security measures. In the order, the governor revealed the state had removed 6, 303 noncitizens from the commonwealth’s voter rolls from January 2022 to July 2024.
The Biden-Harris DOJ , filed a lawsuit , against the state earlier this month, alleging that the Youngkin administration’s removal of noncitizens and other ineligible individuals from Virginia’s voter rolls this close to the general election violated federal law.
Attorney General of Virginia, Jason Miyares, filed an appeal with the Supreme Court on Sunday shortly after the panel from the 4th Circuit rendered its ruling. The commonwealth’s top law enforcement officer claimed in his urgent request for a stay that the Biden-appointed district court judge based her injunction on a provision in federal law that “does not even apply to the removal of noncitizens and other voter registrations that are  , void ab initio” and that “even if it did apply to the removal of noncitizens, Virginia’s program complied with it anyway.”
The Supreme Court made note of the district court’s decision in its ruling that is” stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is sought in time.” If the Supreme Court ultimately declines to hear the case or consents to take the case into account and renders a decision, the stay will be revoked.
Youngkin celebrated Wednesday’s ruling in a post on X, calling it a “victory for commonsense and election fairness”.
The GOP governor wrote that” clean voter rolls are one crucial component of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections.” ” Virginians also know that we have paper ballots, counting machines not connected to the internet, a strong chain of custody process, signature verification, monitored and secured drop boxes, and a’ triple check ‘ vote counting process to tabulate results. Virginians can cast their ballots on Election Day knowing that Virginia’s elections are fair, secure, and free from politically-motivated interference”.
Shawn Fleetwood is a graduate of the University of Mary Washington and a staff writer for The Federalist. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClear Health, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
