Appeals court rules against Virginia’s attempt to block reinstatement of suspected noncitizens on voter rolls

A federal appeals court ruled Sunday that a lower court was right to reinstate about 1,600 people Virginia voters who have questionable citizenship status.

The ruling came after immigrants and women’s rights groups sued the state and its election board after Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order in August directing state officials to identify noncitizens, who were given two weeks to dispute that they were disqualified before being removed from the electorate. roll.

Youngkin’s attorneys argued that the law applies to actual voters and does not include removing noncitizens. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said the state was confusing several parts of the law.

YOUNGKIN PROMISES TO APPEAL ‘TO SCOTUS’ AFTER US COURT ORDERS 1,600 VOTERS BACK IN THE BALLOT

“This is not the way courts interpret the statutes,” the appeals court said in its ruling.

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

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

“Thank you @JasonMiyaresVA for immediately filing an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court against Virginia’s order to reinstate more than 1,500 people who identified themselves as noncitizens,” the governor told Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles issued a preliminary injunction reinstating all voters removed from the state’s voter rolls in the past 90 days. The judge ruled that the removals were “systematic” and not individualized and therefore violated federal law.

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

YOUNGKIN RETURNS TO DOJ PASS ON ‘COMMON SENSE’ LAW THAT REMOVES NON-BUSINESSES FROM THE VOTER LIST

“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 individuals — who identified themselves as noncitizens — on the voter rolls,” Youngkin said in a statement Friday.

“Almost all of these individuals had presented themselves before immigration documents This confirms their status as non-citizens, a fact recently verified by federal authorities,” he added.

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If the case were to be heard by the Supreme Court, it would happen within days of the election.