US Supreme Court Allows Virginia to Remove Suspected Noncitizens From Rolls

story

OCT 30 2024

Above: People pass outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7, 2024 in Washington, DC. Image copyright: Kent Nishimura/Stringer/Getty Images News via Getty Imagesstory last updated OCT 31 2024

The Facts

The US Supreme Court issued an emergency order on Wednesday allowing Virginia to remove suspected noncitizens from its voter registration rolls ahead of Election Day next week.
A final ruling on the issue has been left for a future date, with three Democratic-appointed justices — Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Sonia Sotomayor — indicating their opposition to the program.
This comes as Virginia's attorney general filed an appeal to the US Supreme Court after a federal appeals court upheld on Sunday an injunction ordering the state to restore eligibility for some 1.6K voters.

The Spin

Democratic narrative

It's very unlikely that this voter purge will change the results of any races in Virginia. However, as the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has allowed this state to ignore federal voting rights law, other states may follow suit and defy the National Registration Voter Act's 90-day ban on purges and create nationwide chaos.

Vox

Republican narrative

With this emergency order, the Supreme Court has stepped in to ensure election integrity in Virginia ahead of the Nov. 5 vote — preventing situations where noncitizens are able to cast a valid ballot. On top of that, this legal battle has further shown that Democrats effectively want noncitizens to vote.

Jerusalem Post