Supreme Court Temporarily Stays Lower Court’s Decision Ordering 1,600 Voters Back On Virginia Voter Rolls

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to accept an emergency challenge by Virginia, temporarily halting a federal judge’s decision ordering it to reinstate hundreds of would-be noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls.

The decision is a victory for Gov. Glenn Youngkin and comes days after the state of Virginia filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court to halt a lower court ruling that ordered it to restore the names of about 1,600 people to its voter rolls.

“We are pleased with the Supreme Court’s ruling today,” Youngkin told Fox News in a statement after the decision, which he described as a “victory for common sense and electoral justice.”

“I am grateful for the work that Attorney General Jason Miyares has done in this critical fight to protect the basic rights of American citizens,” he added.

At the heart of the case is whether Virginia’s voter removal process violates a so-called quiet period under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), or a federal law that requires states to cease all “systematic” voter roll maintenance for a period of 90 days before a federal election.

26 REPUBLICAN LAWYERS GENERAL JOIN VIRGINIA IN FILING SUPREME COURT TO RULE VOTER NUMBER

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin speaks at a news conference in Chalmette, Louisiana, on June 3. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

That argument was made by the Justice Department — which sued the state over its removal program earlier this month — against Youngkin, who insisted the state’s process is “individualized” and conducted in accordance with state and federal law.

Justice Department officials reiterated their argument Wednesday after the Supreme Court decision.

“The department brought this case to ensure that every eligible American citizen can vote in our elections,” they told Fox News in a statement. “We disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling.”

With a few days until the election, the court’s decision is expected to be under scrutiny.

Virginia’s voter roll maintenance program was implemented in August and compares the state Department of Motor Vehicles’ list of self-identified non-citizens to its list of registered voters. Non-citizens were flagged and informed that their voter registration would be canceled unless they could prove their citizenship within 14 days.

The Justice Department argued that the removals were carried out too close to the Nov. 5 election and violated the NVRA’s quiet period provision, a decision supported by a U.S. judge in Alexandria who last week ordered Virginia to halt its removals and reinstate the records of all 1,600 removed people .

Justice Department officials also cited concerns in their lawsuit that eligible votes may have been removed from the roll without adequate notice or with sufficient time to correct the error.

YOUNGKIN VOWS TO APPEAL ‘TWO SCOTUS’ AFTER US JUDGE ORDERS 1,600 VOTERS BACK TO THE VOTE

In the state’s petition to the Supreme Court, Virginia Attorney General Jason S. Miyares objected to the lawsuit and subsequent court ruling on several grounds. First, he argued that the NVRA does not include “self-identified noncitizens” in the state—by enacting a narrower reading of the law than the Justice Department and one that he said could render the primary basis of the lawsuit obsolete.

Second, he argued that if the NVRA applies, the state still has an “individualized process” to remove voters, which is conducted by the Department of Motor Vehicles and directly by local registration offices.

Late Monday, attorneys general from all 26 Republican-led states joined Virginia submission of an amicus brief to the Supreme Court supporting its contention that the removal program was conducted on an “individualized” basis, and further that the Justice Department’s reading of the protections afforded under the NVRA is overly broad and does not apply to non-citizens.

Virginia Capitol in Richmond. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Lawyers urged the court to give Virginia’s state of emergency and “restoring the status quo,” noting that it “would comply with the law and enable Virginia to ensure that non-citizens do not vote in the upcoming election.”

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“This court should reject respondents’ efforts to change the rules mid-game and restore the status quo ante,” they wrote. “The Constitution leaves decisions about voter qualifications up to the people of Virginia. And the people of Virginia have decided that non-citizens are not allowed to vote.”

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