US Supreme Court Allows Virginia to Remove Suspected Noncitizens From Rolls

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Facts

  • The US Supreme Court issued an emergency order on Wednesday allowing Virginia to remove suspected noncitizens from its voter registration rolls ahead of Election Day next week.[1]
  • A final ruling on the issue has been left for a future date, with three Democratic-appointed justices — Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Sonia Sotomayor — indicating their opposition to the program.[1][2]
  • This comes as Virginia's attorney general filed an appeal to the US Supreme Court after a federal appeals court upheld on Sunday an injunction ordering the state to restore eligibility for some 1.6K voters.[3][4]
  • On Aug. 7, Virginia's Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order to remove people unable to show proof of citizenship to the state's Department of Motor Vehicles and election officials from statewide registration lists.[5][6]
  • The US Justice Department and advocacy groups sued Virginia for allegedly violating the 90-day so-called quiet period under the federal National Voter Registration Act. Virginia officials claim that its removal process is individualized and that the law should not apply to 'self-identified noncitizens.'[2][7]
  • Despite involving a relatively small number of voters in a non-battleground state, this case comes as the Republican presidential nominee, former Pres. Donald Trump, has raised ongoing concerns over noncitizen voting.[3][8]

Sources: [1]Wsj, [2]New York Times, [3]National Review, [4]Associated Press, [5]Breitbart, [6]CBS, [7]FOX News and [8]CNN.

Narratives

  • Democratic narrative, as provided by Vox. It's very unlikely that this voter purge will change the results of any races in Virginia. However, as the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has allowed this state to ignore federal voting rights law, other states may follow suit and defy the National Registration Voter Act's 90-day ban on purges and create nationwide chaos.
  • Republican narrative, as provided by Red State and Jerusalem Post. With this emergency order, the Supreme Court has stepped in to ensure election integrity in Virginia ahead of the Nov. 5 vote — preventing situations where noncitizens are able to cast a valid ballot. On top of that, this legal battle has further shown that Democrats effectively want noncitizens to vote.

Predictions