A federal judge dismissed a liberal lawsuit Thursday against a law that allows noncitizens to vote in Washington, D. C. The law, which was passed in 2022, already allows unlawful immigrants and foreign military team members to participate in municipal elections.
In Thursday’s ruling, Judge Amy Berman Jackson claimed the Immigration Reform Law Institute ( IRLI), a conservative group representing U. S. citizen voters, lacked the necessary standing in order to challenge the controversial law. Jackson ruled that the defendants did not show how they were harmed by the laws allowing noncitizens to voting and hold public office in Washington, D. C.
Jackson wrote that the lawsuit “does not include information showing , defendants ‘ right to vote has been denied, that they have been subjected to prejudice or inequitable care or denied chances when compared to another party, or that their rights as citizens have been’ subordinated merely because of]their ] family’s country of origin.'”
Fox News reported that the IRLI’s complaint challenged the” Native Native Votings Rights Act”, which was passed in October 2022 by the D. C. Council. The law allows noncitizens to voting in local elections if they have lived in Washington, D. C., for at least 30 times. The legislation also allows noncitizen D. C. citizens to offer on the state’s Board of Elections and run for regional public office jobs.
According to Fox News, the Regional Native Voting Rights Act has led to significant disagreement and actually resulted in an unsuccessful effort by some national lawmakers to reverse the law. In the subsequent complaint, the IRLI warned that the D. C. rules “dilutes the ballot of every U. S. member vote in the District” by allowing illegal immigrants and another noncitizens to vote.
READ MORE: Illegal immigrants was affect elections, specialists warn
The IRLI added,” Because it does so, the D. C. Noncitizen Voting Act is subject to review under both the equivalent protection and the substantive due process parts of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution”.
While the IRLI requested that the court issue an injunction to stop D. C.’s Board of Elections from continuing to matter noncitizen votes under the Native Resident Votings Rights Act, Jackson finally ruled to ignore the lawsuit.
In her judgement, Jackson wrote that the defendants did not show how they “have individually been subjected to any sort of risk as personal electors” due to the law allowing noncitizens to vote in Washington, D. C.
The judge added,” They perhaps object as a matter of policy to the fact that immigrants get to vote at all, but their votes will never receive less weight or be treated different than noncitizens ‘ votes, they are not losing representation in any parliamentary body, nor have citizens as a group been unjustly gerrymandered,’ packed’ or’ cracked’ to divide, concentrate, or devalue their votes”.
