{"id":2362628,"date":"2024-11-01T08:48:57","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T12:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-attempt-to-keep-noncitizens-on-va-rolls-was-legally-absurd\/"},"modified":"2024-11-01T08:56:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T12:56:07","slug":"doj-attempt-to-keep-noncitizens-on-va-rolls-was-legally-absurd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-attempt-to-keep-noncitizens-on-va-rolls-was-legally-absurd\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ Attempt To Keep Noncitizens On VA Rolls Was Legally Absurd"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdoj-attempt-to-keep-noncitizens-on-va-rolls-was-legally-absurd%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2362628&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Biden-Harris administration and certain Democrat litigators \u2062are reportedly collaborating on legal strategies to challenge election \u2064integrity as the 2024 elections approach. A \u200crecent Supreme Court ruling \u2064on October\u200d 30, 2023, may indicate a potential\u200c pushback from the judiciary against these\u200c efforts. The court ruled \u200b6-3 in favor of Virginia&#8217;s attempt to remove over 1,500 self-identified noncitizens from the voter rolls, \u200ccountering a \u2062lower \u200bcourt\u2019s preliminary injunction backed by the Justice Department.<\/p>\n<p>This ruling\u200b involved the National\u200b Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), which sets out regulations for maintaining voter registration rolls, \u2062particularly \u200dthe process \u200dof removing voters shortly before elections. The NVRA&#8217;s provisions are designed to ensure the \u200baccuracy and integrity of\u200d voter registrations, and it specifies when authorities can remove individuals from the rolls, typically restricting systematic removals during \u200cthe\u2063 90-day &#8220;quiet period&#8221; prior to elections.<\/p>\n<p>Virginia&#8217;s approach to mitigating noncitizen voting \u200dincludes a monthly \u200cverification process where the \u200cDMV provides lists of self-identified noncitizens. \u2064Local election \u200dofficials then confirm this information against the voter rolls, allowing \u200dindividuals to contest \u2062their removal. Nevertheless, the Justice Department argued this process violated the NVRA&#8217;s quiet period, leading to a lower court&#8217;s\u200b ruling that halted Virginia&#8217;s\u200c actions.<\/p>\n<p>Virginia&#8217;s appeal to the Supreme Court highlighted that \u200dthe NVRA&#8217;s regulations do not apply to\u200b noncitizens, as their registrations are deemed invalid from the outset. Furthermore, Virginia asserted \u200bthat its removal process involves individual verification rather than being &#8220;systematic,&#8221; and contended that federal opposition to its actions \u200dundermines the state&#8217;s rights. The ruling from the Supreme\u2064 Court is \u200dseen\u200c as a \u2062critical moment amidst expected legal challenges during the upcoming election cycle.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Biden-Harris administration and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearinvestigations.com\/articles\/2024\/10\/10\/trumps_toughest_foe_could_be_harris_lawyer_marc_elias_1064203.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Democrat<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalresearch.org\/article\/active-federal-meddling-in-elections-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">litigators<\/a> appear to be jointly executing a lawfare assault against the integrity of our elections. In the face of this onslaught, will Americans&rsquo; voting rights be sustained?<\/p>\n<p>If an Oct. 30 ruling is any indication, it appears the Supreme Court at least may be willing to step into the breach in defense of our republic &mdash; a hopeful harbinger amid an expected flurry of 2024 election-related litigation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In a 6-3 ruling, with the court&rsquo;s three most leftist justices dissenting, the court issued an order striking down a preliminary injunction backed by the Biden-Harris Justice Department thereby protecting Virginia&rsquo;s effort to remove <a href=\"https:\/\/www.governor.virginia.gov\/newsroom\/news-releases\/2024\/october\/name-1035684-en.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more than 1,500 self-identified noncitizens<\/a> from the voter rolls. In so doing, the court delivered a shot across the bow of a DOJ in effect laboring to protect the non-rights of non-Americans to interfere in our elections and the federal judges who had validated the administration&rsquo;s efforts.<\/p>\n<p>At issue in the case is the <a href=\"https:\/\/uscode.house.gov\/view.xhtml?path=\/prelim@title52\/subtitle2\/chapter205&amp;edition=prelim\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">National Voter Registration Act<\/a> of 1993 (NVRA) and its regulations for removing voters from the rolls, about which lower courts have issued <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/10\/08\/the-federal-government-is-fighting-to-keep-noncitizens-on-voter-rolls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">conflicting opinions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Colloquially known as the &ldquo;Motor Voter Act,&rdquo; the bill aimed to increase the number of &ldquo;eligible citizens&rdquo; who register to vote in federal elections, while &ldquo;protect[ing] the integrity of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/leftists-love-tanya-chutkans-election-interference\/\" title=\"Leftists Love Tanya Chutkan\u2019s Election Interference\">electoral process&#038;rdquo<\/a>; and &ldquo;ensur[ing] that accurate and current voter registration rolls are maintained.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Section 7 of the NVRA lays out requirements for cleaning the voter rolls. It stipulates that authorities may remove registrants from eligible voter lists should they ask to be removed, be convicted of a crime, end up mentally incapacitated, or change residence. The bill dictates that authorities maintain a so<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mayorkas-stonewalls-ohios-request-to-help-track-noncitizens\/\" title=\"Mayorkas Stonewalls Ohio&#039;s Request To Help Track Noncitizens\">-called quiet period<\/a> within 90 days of federal elections, narrowing these removal efforts. During this time, authorities may not implement &ldquo;systematic&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-harris-admin-is-fighting-to-keep-noncitizens-on-voter-rolls\/\" title=\"Biden-Harris Admin Is Fighting To Keep Noncitizens On Voter Rolls\">voter removal programs<\/a>, nor may they remove from the rolls those who change their residence.<\/p>\n<p>The rationale for the provision is that it prevents states from mass-removing voters based on <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">allegedly crude computerized identification-matching exercises<\/a> that risk wrongly removing eligible voters from the rolls with insufficient time to correct errors before elections.<\/p>\n<p>Enter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/24\/24A407\/330575\/20241029144447914_24A407_Stay_Opp_UnitedStates.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Virginia&rsquo;s program<\/a> to keep noncitizens off the voter rolls, which it executed within the three months leading up to Nov. 5. Pursuant to state law, the commonwealth&rsquo;s Department of Motor Vehicles sends a monthly list of all those self-identifying as noncitizens in transactions with the agency to Virginia&rsquo;s Department of Elections.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The department transmits such information to relevant local registrars, who conduct a &ldquo;<em>manual<\/em>, person-by-person verification&rdquo; to confirm individuals identified by the state&rsquo;s DMV as noncitizens match names residing on the voter rolls, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/24\/24A407\/330575\/20241029144447914_24A407_Stay_Opp_UnitedStates.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">court filings<\/a>. The registrars then contact implicated individuals via mail, giving them a couple of weeks to attest to their citizenship and maintain their eligible voter status, before sending a final cancellation notice.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Still, the state&rsquo;s voter registration processes serve as a fail-safe, allowing anyone wrongly removed from the rolls to reregister and vote through Election Day, <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.vaed.561386\/gov.uscourts.vaed.561386.92.0.pdf#page=18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In August, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.governor.virginia.gov\/media\/governorvirginiagov\/governor-of-virginia\/pdf\/eo\/EO-35-Comprehensive-Election-Security-Ensuring-Legal-Voters-and-Accurate-Counting---vF---8.7.24.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">executive order<\/a> directing the commonwealth&rsquo;s DMV to increase the cadence of information-sharing with its elections department by providing a daily list of those identifying as noncitizens. It also conducted an &ldquo;ad hoc review&rdquo; of DMV records over the prior year to identify other potential noncitizens on the rolls, in the form of those indicating they were U.S. citizens in interactions with the agency but who presented conflicting legal presence documentation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Despite the fact that Virginia undertook these activities pursuant to a 2006 law <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/24\/24A407\/330363\/20241027231442005_Stay%2520Appendix_FINAL.pdf#page=43\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">precleared<\/a> by the Justice Department &mdash; activities executed without issue historically, including within 90 days of prior elections &mdash; the Biden-Harris Justice Department and like-minded private plaintiffs cried foul. They filed separate suits contending Virginia&rsquo;s program violated the NVRA&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/10\/08\/the-federal-government-is-fighting-to-keep-noncitizens-on-voter-rolls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-accused-of-shielding-ineligible-voters-after-suing-alabama-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"DOJ accused of shielding ineligible voters after suing Alabama - Washington Examiner\">quiet period provision<\/a><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The cases were consolidated into one and heard by an Eastern District of Virginia trial judge, who ordered a preliminary injunction halting Virginia&rsquo;s efforts. A three-judge panel at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals largely upheld the ruling. Under the injunction, the commonwealth would have to return the noncitizens to the rolls &mdash; a population that could not vote without committing a felony &mdash; just days out from Nov. 5.<\/p>\n<h2>The Arguments<\/h2>\n<p>So Virginia took its case to the Supreme Court, where the commonwealth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/24\/24A407\/330430\/20241028143029581_24A407%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">marshaled<\/a> three particularly strong arguments for why its efforts to remove noncitizens from the rolls were lawful and the court ought to stay the injunction.<\/p>\n<p>The first argument was that relevant provisions of the NVRA do not apply to noncitizens. The NVRA&rsquo;s voter removal regulations, including during the so-called quiet period, govern &ldquo;eligible applicants&rdquo; who become &ldquo;registrants.&rdquo; But noncitizens&rsquo; registrations, the state argued, &ldquo;were void <em>ab initio<\/em>&rdquo; &mdash; illegitimate and therefore invalid from the start.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If a person cannot become a &lsquo;registrant&rsquo; because he is not and cannot be an &lsquo;eligible applicant,&rsquo; then he cannot become a &lsquo;voter,&rsquo;&rdquo; the state argued.&nbsp;&ldquo;And if the person is not a &lsquo;voter,&rsquo; eligible or otherwise, then he is not protected under the Quiet Period Provision.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, Virginia suggested that by the Biden-Harris administration&rsquo;s logic, if noncitizens &mdash; a class of individuals never referenced in the relevant section of the NVRA &mdash; are protected under the quiet period provision, then this implies they are &ldquo;registrants.&rdquo; And since &ldquo;registrants&rdquo; can only be removed from the rolls on prescribed grounds such as death or criminal conviction, &ldquo;then the NVRA [would] bar[] States from removing noncitizens from its rolls <em>at any time<\/em>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>This struck the commonwealth as absurd. <\/p>\n<p>It contended that &ldquo;the NVRA does not prohibit the removal from the voter rolls of persons, such as noncitizens and minors, who were never &lsquo;eligible applicant[s]&rsquo; and thus could not become &lsquo;registrant[s]&rsquo; or &lsquo;voters&rsquo; in the first place.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>The quiet period provision, it added, &ldquo;does not prohibit removing from the rolls persons who never could have validly registered in the first place.&rdquo; Therefore, Virginia concluded, &ldquo;States are free to systematically remove noncitizens, as well as minors and fictitious persons, at any time, including within 90 days of an election.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Virginia&rsquo;s second key argument was that its process for removing noncitizens was not systematic but rather individualized. The process, the commonwealth argued, is predicated on an individual attesting to his noncitzenship, a registrar manually matching that individual to the voter rolls, and a registrar corresponding directly with the individual before removing him.<\/p>\n<p>While the lower courts emphasized that comparisons of electronic databases evinced that Virginia&rsquo;s efforts were &ldquo;systematic,&rdquo; the commonwealth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/24\/24A407\/330363\/20241027231346621_Application%2520for%2520Stay%2520SCOTUS%2520vpf.pdf#page=31\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">countered<\/a> that &ldquo;the use of electronic tools in a larger process does not automatically make the process &lsquo;systematic,&rsquo; particularly where, as here, the process involved several layers of individualized review and contact with each person.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Indeed, if merely using a computerized database is enough to render a process &lsquo;systematic,&rsquo; then nearly every modern process would qualify,&rdquo; Old Dominion quipped.<\/p>\n<p>Third, Virginia claimed the feds&rsquo; effort to combat its voter removal process represents an unconstitutional encroachment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This Court has made clear that the &lsquo;Elections Clause empowers Congress to regulate how federal elections are held, but not who may vote in them,&rsquo;&rdquo; the commonwealth argued, citing the 2013 <em>Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council <\/em>case. &ldquo;[F]orcing States to keep noncitizens on their voter rolls would cross the line into regulating &lsquo;who&rsquo; may vote in federal elections.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>We Need Answers<\/h2>\n<p>While the Supreme Court&rsquo;s staying of the preliminary injunction imposed on Virginia may indicate it concurs with these arguments, the court did not rule on the case&rsquo;s merits and remained silent even on its rationale for granting the stay.<\/p>\n<p>Consequently, states, Virginia argued, remain &ldquo;unaware of when, or whether, they can remove noncitizens from the voter rolls. They need to know with certainty whether they can remove noncitizens at any point, only outside of the Quiet Period, or never.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Election authorities deserve answers, and hopefully the court will ultimately take up the Virginia case and provide them. Similar questions are likely to abound for the court in cases to come concerning virtually every aspect of the 2024 election.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, it chose to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/opinion\/where-do-we-go-to-get-the-integrity-of-our-vote-back-3709423\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">punt<\/a> on the most critical such case &mdash; to our great detriment. Let us hope that the court&rsquo;s action in the Virginia case illustrates a new resolve for the court to grapple with such pivotal matters this time around.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Ben Weingarten is editor at large for RealClearInvestigations. He is a senior contributor to The Federalist, columnist at Newsweek, and a contributor to the New York Post and Epoch Times, among other publications. Subscribe to his newsletter at weingarten.substack.com, and follow him on Twitter: @bhweingarten.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Biden-Harris administration and Democrats seem to be undermining election integrity. Will Americans&#8217; voting rights endure? An Oct. 30 ruling suggests the Supreme Court may intervene<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":698,"featured_media":2362630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Bus-Glenn-Youngkin.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[7076,32779,13833,44147],"class_list":["post-2362628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-doj","tag-legal-issues","tag-noncitizens","tag-va-rolls"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Bus-Glenn-Youngkin.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/698"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2362628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2362630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2362628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2362628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2362628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}