On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an effort by the Biden-Harris Justice Department to maintain noncitizens on Virginia’s voter rolls.
In a brief order, the Court approved an emergency request from Virginia to halt a lower court ruling that barred state election officials from removing around 1,600 self-reported noncitizens from the state’s voter registration lists. The initial decision, made by a district judge appointed by Biden, was upheld on Sunday by a three-judge panel of Democrat appointees on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Supreme Court’s decision to grant Virginia’s request appeared to divide along partisan lines, with all three Democrat justices voting to deny the application.
The case originated in August, when Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order for Virginia agencies to carry out voter list maintenance and other election security measures ahead of the November election. In the order, he noted that the state had removed 6,303 noncitizens from its voter rolls from January 2022 to July 2024.
The Biden-Harris DOJ recently filed a lawsuit against Virginia, claiming that the Youngkin administration’s removal of noncitizens and other ineligible individuals from the voter rolls so close to the general election violated federal law.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares appealed to the Supreme Court on Sunday, shortly after the 4th Circuit panel’s ruling. In his emergency request for a stay, Miyares argued that the district court judge, appointed by Biden, relied on a federal statute provision that “does not even apply to the removal of noncitizens and other voter registrations that are void ab initio,” adding that “even if it did apply to the removal of noncitizens, Virginia’s program complied with it anyway.”
The Supreme Court’s order stated that the district court’s ruling would be “stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely sought.” The stay would end if the Supreme Court decides not to hear the case or agrees to take it up and ultimately issues a decision.
Governor Youngkin praised the ruling on Wednesday in a post on X, calling it a “victory for commonsense and election fairness.”
“Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections,” the GOP governor wrote. “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.”
