Judge David Leibowitz of the U.S. District Court has thrown out federal charges against Chelsea Cox, a woman born in Jamaica, who cast a ballot in the 2020 presidential election without holding U.S. citizenship. His ruling, grounded in a 31-page decision, finds that a 1996 federal statute making it a crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections violates the Constitution.
A federal court decision has dismissed Cox’s criminal charges, striking down a provision of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). That statute turned voting in federal elections into a crime for those who lack U.S. citizenship.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, called the ruling “insane.” He said it “gives the game away: Democrats pretend we don’t need the SAVE Act because non-citizen voting is already illegal… while activist judges try to destroy laws banning non-citizens from voting!”
Hans von Spakovsky of Advancing American Freedom said the ruling will most likely be “squashed” by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Von Spakovsky said Leibowitz’s opinion that the federal law barring aliens from voting is unconstitutional is “patently wrong.”
Anhishek Kambil of Holtzman Vogel Law Firm said he’d be “surprised” if the federal government did not prevail in its appeal. Kambil cited Oregon v. Mitchell, in which the Supreme Court ruled the government had authority to set voting age in federal elections.
The judge’s reasoning
Leibowitz rejected the federal government’s argument that the Constitution grants Congress total authority over regulating immigration and noncitizens. He acknowledged Congress has “broad, undoubted power” over immigration and noncitizens but said those powers are not “a series of blank checks” and cannot override the Constitution’s “foundational constitutional constraints” assigning voter-qualification authority to the states.
Leibowitz also rejected the federal government’s reliance on the Elections Clause, which gives Congress power to regulate how states run federal elections. He argued that the statute in question was not aimed at regulating election procedures or preventing fraud; rather, it created a federal voter qualification by deciding who could vote.
“The Constitution commits to the States, and the States alone, the general power to set voter qualifications in federal elections,” Leibowitz wrote in his ruling. “This is clear from both the text of the document and the debates at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.”
State authorities in Florida would retain the power to file charges against Cox. The ruling has been characterized as the most politically significant decision to come from Leibowitz’s bench up to this point.
Leibowitz was nominated for the federal bench by Biden in 2024, and he was confirmed by the Senate 64-33, including a yes vote from then-Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
The broader fight over voting
Lee is co-author of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which is currently stalled in the Senate and unlikely to pass before the midterm elections. The Trump administration’s election integrity efforts are driven by belief that the 2020 election was “stolen” — an unproven claim President Trump continues to maintain.
Bluman v. FEC, a 2011 decision written by then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh, upheld restrictions on foreign nationals’ campaign spending and said the government may exclude noncitizens from activities tied to democratic self-government. Kavanaugh wrote that the Supreme Court has long held the government may bar aliens from voting, serving as jurors, working as police or probation officers, or teaching at public schools.
The case Bluman v. FEC dealt with campaign contributions and spending, not a federal criminal case involving voting.
| Claim | Position |
|---|---|
| Federal law bars noncitizens from voting | Government position |
| Federal law is unconstitutional | Judge’s position |
| SAVE Act needed to protect voting | Lee’s position |
| State charges still available | Both agree |
What happens next
The case will move to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Von Spakovsky said the ruling will be “squashed” there. Kambil said he would be surprised if the federal government did not prevail.
Politically, the decision carries weight. It questions the federal government’s power to decide who may take part in federal elections.
A judge’s view on federal power
Leibowitz’s opinion rests on a narrow reading of the Constitution. He found that the federal law went beyond Congress’s authority by creating a national standard for who could vote in federal elections — a task the Constitution assigns to the states.
Federal prosecutors have intensified their work against noncitizens voting through federal prosecutions and attempts to verify citizenship on state voter rolls, and the decision delivers a direct rejection of those Trump administration voter integrity efforts.
Courts appear ready to challenge federal power in fields long governed by state law, and the decision serves as a caution to the current administration.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs Judge Leibowitz’s ruling and is against Sen. Lee’s view that the statute should stand as law. The Constitution assigns voter-qualification authority to the states, and Judge Leibowitz found that a federal statute cannot override that assignment. The paper supports the small business and individual against the agency and the giant, and a federal statute that punishes people for casting ballots without citizenship fits that category.
Sen. Lee’s response, calling the ruling “insane” and tying it to the stalled SAVE Act, shows the political stakes. The paper supports Judge Leibowitz’s narrow reading of the Constitution and rejects the federal government’s attempt to use the Elections Clause to create a national standard for who can vote in federal elections.
What the reader should watch for is whether the 11th Circuit agrees with Leibowitz’s reasoning. The case Bluman v. FEC, cited by Kambil, concerned campaign contributions and spending, not a federal criminal case involving voting. The paper wants the oversight narrow and aimed at the harm, not a broad new rulebook that raises the cost of entry for small business.
Source material: “‘Activist judge’ rules Congress cannot bar noncitizens from voting in federal elections,” Fox News.
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