Appeals court rules against Virginia’s effort to block re-instatement of suspected noncitizens to voter rolls

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A federal appeals court on Sunday dominated {that a} decrease court was appropriate to re-instate some 1,600 Virginia voters who’ve questionable citizenship standing to the rolls.

The ruling got here after immigrants and ladies’s rights teams sued the state and its Board of Elections after Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an govt order in August directing state officers to establish noncitizens, who got two weeks to dispute being disqualified earlier than being faraway from voter rolls.

Youngkin’s attorneys argued that the legislation applies to precise voters and that eradicating non-citizens is not coated. The appeals court for the Fourth Circuit mentioned the state was mixing numerous components of the legislation collectively.

YOUNGKIN VOWS TO APPEAL ‘TO SCOTUS’ AFTER US JUDGE ORDERS 1,600 VOTERS BACK ON BALLOT

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks in the course of the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Policy Conference on the Washington Hilton on June 22, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

“That is not how courts interpret statutes,” the appeals court mentioned in its ruling.

On Sunday, he vowed to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It’s commonsense: noncitizens shouldn’t be on our voter rolls,” he wrote on X.

“Thank you @JasonMiyaresVA for filing immediately with the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency appeal of the order for Virginia to put over 1,500 people who self-identified as non-citizens back on the voter rolls,” the governor mentioned to Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.

On Friday, U.S. Judge Patricia Giles issued a preliminary injunction to reinstate all voters who had been faraway from state voter rolls previously 90 days. The decide discovered that the removals had been “systematic,” not individualized, and have been thus a violation of federal legislation.

Her ruling got here after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the State of Virginia, Virginia State Board of Elections and Virginia Commissioner of Elections on Oct. 11, saying that by eradicating voters from rolls too shut to the Nov. 5 normal election, the state had violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

YOUNGKIN HITS BACK AT DOJ SUIT OVER ‘COMMON SENSE’ LAW THAT CULLS NONCITIZENS FROM VOTER ROLL

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is seen in Alexandria, Va. (Bonnie Cash/Getty Images)

“Let’s be clear about what just happened: only eleven days before a Presidential election, a federal judge ordered Virginia to reinstate over 1,500 individuals–who self-identified themselves as noncitizens–back onto the voter rolls,” Youngkin mentioned in a press release Friday.

“Almost all these individuals had previously presented immigration documents confirming their noncitizen status, a fact recently verified by federal authorities,” he added.