Federal judge in Miami: Law criminalizing noncitizen voting is unconstitutional

MIAMI, Florida — A federal district judge on Thursday dismissed criminal charges against a Jamaican citizen living in Florida, declaring unconstitutional the 1996 federal law that criminalizes voting by noncitizens — a ruling that, as Reuters reports, appears to be the first time a federal court has struck down the law as unconstitutional.

Judge David Leibowitz in Miami ruled to dismiss the case against Chelsea Cox, the Jamaican citizen charged in October with illegally voting in the 2020 elections, arguing that the ban violates the Constitution of the United States.

The 1996 law makes it a criminal offense for a person who is not a U.S. citizen to vote in federal elections, and this appears to be the first case in which a federal court has declared it a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The ruling is a blow to the Trump administration’s campaign against noncitizen voting, which has become a cornerstone of the president’s efforts to press claims of election fraud ahead of November’s midterm elections.