Miami judge voids federal noncitizen voting charge
A Miami federal judge dismissed a noncitizen-voting charge, saying states alone set who may cast ballots. The ruling covers one Broward County case and does not change Florida's own ban. The Justice Department has already appealed to the 11th Circuit.
A federal judge in Miami dismissed a noncitizen-voting case after ruling that Congress lacked the power to make that conduct a federal crime, at least in that prosecution.
U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz threw out the misdemeanor charge against Chelsea Michelle Ann Cox, a Jamaican national accused of casting a 2020 presidential ballot in Broward County while she was not a U.S. citizen. In a 31-page order, he wrote that the Constitution generally leaves voter qualifications to the states, not Congress. The ruling applies only to Cox's case. It does not legalize noncitizen voting in Florida, where state law still bans it.
NBC News reported that the decision undercuts a decades-old federal statute the Trump administration has used in its election-integrity push. Fox News Digital highlighted criticism from conservatives who called Leibowitz an "activist judge" and predicted the 11th Circuit would reverse him. The Miami Herald reported that the Justice Department filed a notice of appeal to the Atlanta-based appeals court on Oct. 2.
Prosecutors said Cox used a fraudulent U.S. Virgin Islands birth certificate to get a Florida driver's license and later registered to vote. Leibowitz said he could assume every charged fact and the constitutional answer would be the same. Florida could still prosecute under state law. The Herald noted the Justice Department has also announced new noncitizen-voting and related cases in other districts while the appeal proceeds.
What we know: The federal charge against Cox is dismissed, and the government is appealing.
What we don't: Whether other judges or the 11th Circuit will adopt the same reading of the statute.
Where outlets agree NBC News and the Miami Herald both report that Judge Leibowitz dismissed the federal charge against Chelsea Cox after holding that states, not Congress, set voter qualifications.
Where they differ NBC News frames the ruling as a setback for the administration's election push, while Fox News Digital stresses critics who call the judge an activist and expect the 11th Circuit to reverse him.