Judge Tosses D.C. Noncitizen Voting Lawsuit

(Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

A federal lawsuit challenging a statute in Washington, D.C., that allows noncitizens to vote in local elections has been thrown out, with the judge ruling that the plaintiffs did not prove the law harmed them.

In her ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that the seven D.C. voters who argued that allowing noncitizens to cast ballots in local but not federal races served to dilute citizens’ votes, reported The Washington Post.

The judge also said that plaintiffs did not prove that the law in question, the D.C. Noncitizen Voting Act, passed by council members in 2022, led to them being denied opportunities or treated unfairly.

“They may object as a matter of policy to the fact that immigrants get to vote at all, but their votes will not receive less weight or be treated differently than noncitizens’ votes,” she said.

The Immigration Reform Law Institute, representing the plaintiffs, said it plans to appeal Jackson’s decision, with Litigation Director Christopher Hajec writing in an email that the “sovereignty of the American people” is at stake with such legislation.

Former GOP mayoral candidate Stacia Hall, who lost to Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2022, and retired security officer Dick Heller, who was involved in a 2008 Supreme Court case that ended the gun ban in D.C., were among the plaintiffs.

The complaint sought to stop the D.C. Board of Elections from allowing noncitizens to register to vote. The plaintiffs also noted that the statute would allow noncitizens to hold public office.

D.C.’s voting law went into effect last year after other efforts to allow noncitizens to vote failed.

House Republicans and some Democrats, while reviewing the legislation as required by law, sought to block the voting act. Their resolution eventually expired in a Senate committee, which allowed the legislation to become law.

However, the statute’s supporters said noncitizens should have a say in electing local officials, as they also live in the community.

“We think that if people are here, if they’re paying their taxes, they are running small businesses, employing people or being employed in our city, having their kids in our schools and participating in the local economics of our city, then they should have a voice in local politics,” Jose Barrios, president of the D.C. Latino Caucus, said Thursday.