A Biden-appointed federal judge in Miami just threw out the 1996 federal law criminalizing noncitizen voting as unconstitutional — the first time any federal court has ever made such a ruling, and one that strips the federal government of its direct enforcement tool against foreign participation in U.S. elections.
The practical stake is straightforward: if this ruling stands and spreads, the federal government has no statute to prosecute noncitizens who vote in federal elections. States could still prosecute under their own laws — but that means a patchwork of enforcement where some states act and others don't, and no federal backstop at all.
U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz, appointed by Joe Biden in 2024, dismissed the federal case against Chelsea Michelle Ann Cox, a Jamaican national who allegedly overstayed a tourist visa and cast a ballot in Broward County, Florida, during the 2020 presidential election. According to WJLA, Cox used a fake U.S. Virgin Islands birth certificate to obtain identification and register to vote. She was charged in October 2025 with illegal voting, a misdemeanor under the 1996 statute punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine.
Leibowitz's 31-page opinion doesn't dispute that Cox voted. He argues Congress never had the authority to pass the law in the first place. Citing Article I, Article II, and the 17th Amendment, Leibowitz wrote that the Constitution reserves voter eligibility determinations to the states — not Congress. "When you're prosecuted based on a law that Congress did not have the authority to pass, the prosecution cannot stand," he wrote.
Leibowitz said Congress can regulate election procedures, but not choose 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."
He rejected prosecutors' arguments that congressional powers over immigration, foreign affairs, and election administration validated the statute. According to HotAir, the ruling explicitly noted that Florida can and does prohibit and punish the conduct Cox allegedly engaged in — Leibowitz simply said it's Florida's job, not Washington's.
The ruling applies only to this case and is not binding on other courts. But HotAir noted this appears to be the first time any federal court has found the 1996 law unconstitutional — meaning Leibowitz is operating in untilled legal ground.
Federal prosecutors had also pointed to a 1970 Supreme Court case validating Congress's authority to lower the voting age to 18 as precedent for federal power over voting rules, according to Breitbart. Leibowitz wasn't persuaded.
DHS General Counsel James Percival slammed the ruling on X: "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!'"
Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, challenged Leibowitz's logic directly. While states do set voter qualifications, he said, the judge ignored that Article I, Section 8 gives Congress "100% authority over naturalization" — and thus plenary authority over the admittance of aliens and the standards under which they may participate in American civic life, according to WJLA.
The ruling ends Cox's federal prosecution for now but leaves Florida's citizenship requirement intact and does not resolve her potential deportation.
The irony is sharp: the same people who spent years insisting noncitizen voting never happens are now celebrating a ruling that says the federal government can't criminalize it. The question left open is whether states alone can carry the full weight of election integrity — and whether a single judge's novel reading of the Constitution will survive appeal.
