Appeals court rules against Virginia’s efforts to block suspected non-citizens from being reinstated on voter rolls

On Sunday, a federal appeals court ruled that a lower court was correct to reinstate about 1,600 people Virginia voters who have questionable citizenship status on the list.

The ruling came after immigrant and women’s rights groups sued the state and its Board of Elections after Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order in August requiring state officials to identify non-citizens, who had two weeks to challenge disqualifications before removing them from the group of voters buns.

Youngkin’s lawyers argued that the law applied to actual voters and that the removal of noncitizens was not covered by it. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the state was confusing different parts of the law.

YOUNGKIN WILL MAKE AN APPEAL ‘TO SCOTUS’ AFTER OUR JUDGE ORDERS 1,600 VOTES BACK TO THE VOTES

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin speaks during the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s “Path to Majority Politics” conference at the Washington Hilton on June 22, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

“Courts do not interpret statutes in this way,” the appeals court said in its ruling.

On Sunday, he announced he would take the case to the US Supreme Court.

“It’s common sense: foreigners should not be on our voter lists,” he wrote in X.

“Thank you @JasonMiyaresVA “for promptly filing with the United States Supreme Court a request for an emergency appeal of Virginia’s order to return to the voter rolls over 1,500 people who identified themselves as non-citizens,” the governor told Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.

On Friday, U.S. Judge Patricia Giles issued a preliminary injunction to reinstate all voters who were removed from state voter rolls in the last 90 days. The judge found that the expulsions were “systematic” rather than individualized and therefore violated federal law.

Her ruling came after the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit v. State of Virginia, the Virginia State Board of Elections, and the Virginia Commissioner of Elections on October 11, alleging that by removing voters from the rolls too close to the November 5 general election, the state violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

YOUNGKIN RESPONSES TO ADDRESS THE “COMMON SENSE” LAW THAT EXCLUDES CITIZENS FROM VOTING COUNTS

The seat of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is in Alexandria, Virginia. (Bonnie Cash/Getty Images)

“Let’s be clear about what just happened: Just eleven days before the presidential election, a federal judge ordered Virginia to reinstate more than 1,500 people on the voter rolls who identified themselves as foreigners.” Youngkin said in a statement on Friday.

“Almost all of these people have presented before immigration documents confirming their foreigner status, which was recently verified by federal authorities,” he added.

Voters fill out their ballots on Election Day 2023.

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If the Supreme Court takes up the case, it will happen within a few days of the election.