On Wednesday, the Supreme Court allowed Virginia to proceed with removing individuals identified as noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls. This decision pauses a lower court’s injunction that had barred Virginia from removing approximately 1,600 people who reportedly “self-identified” as noncitizens.
The order was not unanimous, as Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Elena Kagan opposed granting Virginia’s request.
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The ruling responds to an emergency application Virginia filed after U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles ordered the state to halt its efforts, citing a potential violation of the National Voter Registration Act by making changes within 90 days of the election.
Virginia argued that blocking the law, which has been in place since 2006, would harm state sovereignty, confuse voters, and overload election administration.
Governor Glenn Youngkin called the Supreme Court’s order a “victory for commonsense and election fairness,” emphasizing the importance of maintaining clean voter rolls.
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The Department of Justice had initially sued Virginia in early October, alleging that the state’s efforts could risk disenfranchising eligible voters so close to Election Day.
Youngkin, however, issued an executive order in August to expedite the removal of noncitizens from the rolls, a step he asserts supports election integrity.
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