This headline shows the democrats plan the entire time. pic.twitter.com/L1mQeJ3FQW
— TheFoxesSay (@TheFoxesSay) October 2, 2026
I am no legal expert - I don't even try to play one here at HotAir - but even I can see there's something amiss here.
A US judge dismissed a federal case on Thursday that accused a Jamaican national of illegally voting, finding the law criminalizing noncitizen voting was unconstitutional and delivering a blow to the Trump administration’s campaign against alleged election fraud.
The ruling by Miami-based US District Judge David Leibowitz applies only to the case of Florida resident Chelsea Cox, who was charged in October 2025 with illegally voting in the 2020 election.
It is not binding for judges in other cases.
I'll just get the 'Biden-appointed judge' part out of the way, so that's settled.
Now, according to this jurist's considered opinion, Congress erred back in 1996 when it passed a law that made non-citizen voting in federal elections a crime. The judge believes this statute is unconstitutional because it usurps the states' right to set election procedures and requirements, and it is the state's prerogative to prosecute it.
That is what I believe his argument boils down to.
...Leibowitz wrote that under the US Constitution only states can set voter qualifications, not Congress. Every state requires US citizenship to vote, and Leibowitz said it was up to Florida, not the Department of Justice, to prosecute her for violating that requirement.
“Can the State of Florida prohibit and punish the exact conduct Defendant Cox allegedly engaged in here? This has already been decided elsewhere and is not addressed here: Florida can and does,” Leibowitz wrote.
There's also an interesting side note proving this is a novel legal theory Judge Liebowitz is promoting:
...The ruling by Leibowitz, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, appears to be the first time a federal court has found the 1996 law a violation of the US Constitution.
The FIRST TIME it's ever been found to be a constitutional violation?
So another progressive judge plowing through untilled legal fields and sowing new law as they go again.
...The case hinged on a 1996 federal law that generally bars noncitizens from voting in elections involving federal offices. Violations are punishable by up to a year in prison, a fine or both.
Leibowitz cited Article I, Article II and the 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which he interpreted as reserving to states the authority to determine who can and can’t vote in federal elections.
Accordingly, he focused on the Constitution’s limit on federal power rather than whether Cox illegally cast a ballot.
“When you’re prosecuted based on a law that Congress did not have the authority to pass, the prosecution cannot stand,” he wrote, pointing to several landmark cases — including Marbury v. Madison, United States v. Hudson and Ex parte Siebold — as precedential.
Congress can regulate election procedures, he added, but that authority does not generally extend to choosing the electorate.
“To hold otherwise would allow Congress to establish and modify the parameters of its own special electorate, entirely divorced from what Florida or any other State may decide,” he wrote. “That result is precisely what our federal constitutional republic does not allow.”
Leibowitz rejected prosecutors’ arguments that congressional powers over immigration, foreign affairs and election administration validated the statute. He also found unpersuasive their reliance on a fractured 1970 Supreme Court decision, Oregon v. Mitchell, which upheld Congress’ lowering of the voting age to 18 in federal elections without a majority agreeing on the constitutional basis for doing so.
Judge Boasberg must be so proud.
Block, obstruct, and make decisions designed to protect the rights of the unlawful…. pic.twitter.com/Zz5pP3WAtr
— John Ayres (@JohnAyr12294351) October 2, 2026
And it's just in time for the midterm elections. Isn't it amazing how another progressive judge nullifies election security meant to prevent that thing that never happens?
DOJ drops the HAMMER on aliens committing VOTER FRAUD, indicting 10 from Minnesota.
— The SCIF (@TheSCIF) September 30, 2026
Defendants Illegally Voted and fasley claimed U.S. citizenship in the November 2022 and 2024 General Elections and the August 2026 Primary Election.
"Voting in American elections is a privilege… pic.twitter.com/FUyikf9MaI
Like a Democratic miracle or something.
It's as if they're all lined up in the hallway, waiting for their turn to throw a wrench into efforts to clean the voting system up.
James Percival is the Department of Homeland Security's General Counsel.
A Biden appointed judge in Florida says that federal bans on noncitizen voting are unconstitutional. The thing that never happens is now “constitutionally protected activity!” https://t.co/F7Nt35HZwz
— James Percival (@DHSGenCounsel) October 2, 2026
And that's basically what the judge said.
The state is welcome to prosecute said non-citizen voter.
The federal government cannot.
I need a cocktail.
And someone better be hotfooting this up to SCOTUS, if only for KBJ's dissent.
That ought to be a whopper.
Beege UPDATE: So this is turning out to be a very interesting and illuminating discussion on both sides of the argument, as there are staunch conservatives on both sides as well. And I did want to bring you both, because they weren't available last night when this word first broke.
It turns out, according to this Immigration Council attorney, prosecutions are so rare that no one has ever thought to challenge the law before, and the Trump administration will be appealing the decision.
Here’s a link to the decision. The Trump admin will appeal it to the 11th Circuit.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) October 2, 2026
Florida has its own noncitizen voting law, so even if this is upheld, the defendant could still be prosecuted there; and the immigration consequences are not impacted.https://t.co/OxQulxR9R4
Also, the defense's amicus brief was written by Paul Clement, considered one of the most conservative current SCOTUS litigators.
Interestingly, Paul Clement, perhaps the most famous conservative Supreme Court litigator currently practicing, was a court-appointed amicus in this case.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) October 2, 2026
Here’s the brief he submitted arguing that the law is unconstitutional. https://t.co/UPKkomylb8
As far as opinions I greatly respect, Shipwreckedcrew explains in his usual calm manner that it's a matter of federalism.
It is a question of federalism. The structure of the relationship between the federal government and the states is that the Constitution rested some powers exclusively in the states. Members of Congress are, at their core, representatives from the states. How the states pick… https://t.co/4MyMFGaZkv
— Shipwreckedcrew (@shipwreckedcrew) October 3, 2026
...How the states pick their representatives was a decision left to the states as a matter of sovereignty.
"Time, place, and manner" clause relates to the process of how elections are to be held.
"Qualifications" clause relates to how the states choose to establish eligibility to cast a vote.
Congress passed a law in 1996 making it a federal crime for aliens to vote.
Does that mean it was "legal" for them to vote from 1789 to 1996?
This ruling doesn't say "Aliens can vote."
That's the outrage porn headline to generate clicks.
The ruling says it can't be a federal crime.
It can still be against state law -- the absence of it being a federal crime is not the same as saying aliens are eligible to vote.
"Legality" and "eligibility" are not synonymous.
And, for the record, Florida has a specific state statute against non-citizens voting, so this woman can be prosecuted by the state here.
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