In a new ruling, the Supreme Court sided with Virginia against a mandate from the Biden-Harris administration, which sought to prevent the state from purging non-citizens from its voter rolls before the upcoming presidential election. The Court’s decision, a 6-3 order, permits Virginia to enforce its state law to remove non-citizens from its voting lists, pushing back against a lower court’s ruling that supported the administration’s directive.
The dispute originated after Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice (DOJ) argued that Virginia’s actions violated the National Voter Registration Act, which prohibits states from updating their voter rolls within 90 days of an election. A federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia had previously ruled that Virginia must cease its voter roll updates and inform those non-citizens that they are eligible to vote. Virginia’s governor, Glenn Youngkin, subsequently appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, resulting in a stay on the lower court’s order.
The Supreme Court’s order reads, “The application for stay presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is granted… pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and disposition of a petition for writ of certiorari, if such writ is timely sought.” This ruling allows Virginia to continue its voter roll maintenance practices under its state law, which has been in effect since 2006.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, advocating for the Biden-Harris administration’s position to allow the DOJ’s instructions for voter list maintenance to stand. They argued that Virginia’s actions within 90 days of an election could interfere with federal election law.
This issue has sparked intense debate over voter list maintenance, as Virginia officials assert that the state’s existing procedures are lawful. Virginia’s law mandates that any individual flagged as a non-citizen is notified three times, giving them the opportunity to either confirm or correct their citizenship status. Governor Youngkin criticized the DOJ’s stance, stating, “Let’s be clear about what just happened: only eleven days before a Presidential election, a federal judge ordered Virginia to reinstate over 1,500 individuals–who self-identified themselves as noncitizens–back onto the voter rolls.”
Virginia’s approach includes daily voter roll updates, removing individuals flagged as ineligible while adding new eligible voters. The DOJ, however, challenged these updates as a “systematic voter removal program” deemed too close to the election to be compliant with federal law.
Virginia’s DMV also plays a role in this process, registering voters when issuing driver’s licenses and flagging individuals who identify as non-citizens. The DMV then notifies election officials to ensure only eligible citizens remain on the voting list.
With the Supreme Court’s decision, Virginia can now continue its voter roll updates, including removing non-citizens who may seek to vote in the upcoming election, as the case moves forward in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.