Biden Judge Rules Congress Can’t Ban Noncitizens From Federal Ballots

U.S. District Judge David S. Leibowitz. U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

A Biden-appointed Miami judge just told Capitol Hill it has no constitutional power to bar noncitizens from voting in presidential and congressional elections — and tossed the federal case that was testing the point.

U.S. District Judge David S. Leibowitz of the Southern District of Florida dismissed a misdemeanor charge Thursday against Chelsea Michelle Ann Cox, a Florida resident prosecutors say cast a 2020 ballot in Broward County despite lacking U.S. citizenship. The order, reported by the Washington Times, Al Jazeera/Reuters, Florida Politics, and Bloomberg Law, holds that 18 U.S.C. § 611 — stretches beyond what Congress may do.

“Congress has no power to say who can vote or who cannot vote in federal elections — that foundational power is reserved for the States,” Leibowitz wrote, according to Bloomberg Law’s account of the ruling. Florida Politics quoted the 31-page opinion’s sharper line: “When you’re prosecuted based on a law that Congress did not have the authority to pass, the prosecution cannot stand.”

One Miami docket — dozens watching

The decision applies, for now, only to Cox. Al Jazeera, citing Reuters, puts about 45 similar federal cases still pending nationwide, with at least four other defendants already raising the same constitutional challenge. The Washington Times warned that if Leibowitz’s reasoning spreads, it could undercut the Trump Justice Department’s noncitizen-voting prosecutions. Reuters, via Al Jazeera and Florida Politics, puts those charges at least 60 since Trump returned to office in January 2025.

Prosecutors allege Cox entered as a tourist in 1999, overstayed, and later used a fraudulent U.S. Virgin Islands birth certificate to obtain a Florida driver’s license and register to vote in 2012, according to Al Jazeera’s summary of court filings. They say she cast a ballot on Oct. 29, 2020; the federal charge landed in October 2025. Those are charging allegations — not a jury verdict. Leibowitz never reached the merits of whether she voted illegally. He held Congress lacked authority to pass the federal ban she was charged under.

What the opinion leaves standing

Leibowitz read Article I, Article II, and the 17th Amendment as leaving voter qualifications to the states. Congress may regulate the times, places, and manner of federal elections, he wrote, but that power does not stretch to choosing who belongs in the electorate. Florida Politics quoted his warning against letting Congress “establish and modify the parameters of its own special electorate, entirely divorced from what Florida or any other State may decide.”

States remain free to require citizenship. Leibowitz noted Florida already does — and can prosecute Cox under state law. He also agreed with court-appointed advisers that a differently drafted federal statute, keyed to a state’s own citizenship rule, might survive, Florida Politics reported. Deportation questions around Cox were left open; her lawyer told Al Jazeera he hoped authorities would not seek to remove her.

Indiana’s floor did not move

Hoosiers already live under a citizenship requirement. Indiana Code 3-7-13-1 says a person may register only if they are a United States citizen (alongside age and precinct-residency rules). The 2026 Indiana Voter Registration Guidebook repeats the same citizenship gate and the Help America Vote Act “Are you a U.S. Citizen?” question. Nothing in Leibowitz’s Miami order rewrites that statute.

Election integrity is already the loudest statewide fight on the November ballot. Sen. Jim Banks has called the secretary of state contest “the most important race on the ballot” for election integrity. A federal bench opinion that Congress cannot set a national citizenship floor for federal ballots — while Indiana still can — is the accountability frame: state law and state prosecutors keep the key, and federal misdemeanor cases now sit on an unsettled constitutional footing until higher courts say otherwise.

The Miami order does not declare open season on noncitizen voting. It says the federal criminal ban Congress wrote in the 1990s cannot prop up this prosecution. Appeal clocks and copycat motions in those other dockets will decide how far the theory travels before November.

Reporting: Washington Times (https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/oct/2/federal-judge-rules-congress-cant-ban-noncitizens-voting/); Al Jazeera/Reuters (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/2/miami-judge-rules-federal-noncitizen-voting-law-violates-us-constitution); Florida Politics (https://floridapolitics.com/archives/822939-miami-judges-ruling-on-noncitizen-voting-case-rejects-federal-ban-as-unconstitutional/); Bloomberg Law (https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/migrant-voting-case-tossed-judge-says-law-is-unconstitutional); Indiana Code 3-7-13-1; Indiana Voter Registration Guidebook 2026.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.