A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the legality of a Washington, D.C., law that allows non-citizens to participate in local elections.
The judge, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, appointed by President Obama, ruled that the seven plaintiffs, who are all U.S. citizens and registered voters in D.C., did not demonstrate how the law had negatively impacted them.
The contested law, known as the “Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022,” was passed by the D.C. Council in 2022 and removes the citizenship requirement for voting in municipal elections.
Noncitizen residents are now permitted to vote exclusively in local elections, such as for local representatives and on local initiatives, referenda, recalls, or charter amendment proposals.
The law allows noncitizen residents to run for government positions in D.C. and serve on the city’s Board of Elections, as stated in court documents.
In the lawsuit filed against D.C.’s Board of Elections, the plaintiffs claimed that the law diminished the voting power of U.S. citizen voters in the District. They argued that granting voting rights to noncitizens infringed on their foundational right to vote and discriminated against both U.S. citizens and native-born residents of D.C.
Additionally, they asserted that this practice violated the constitutional right to citizen self-government.
The plaintiffs sought an injunction to stop the Board of Elections from registering noncitizens to vote and from including their votes in the count. However, Judge Jackson determined that the plaintiffs failed to prove that they had suffered any loss or reduction of rights due to the law.
“They may object as a matter of policy to the fact that immigrants get to vote at all, but their votes will not receive any less weight or be treated different than noncitizens votes; they are not losing representation in any legislative body; nor have citizens as a group been discriminatorily gerrymander, ‘packed,’ or ‘cracked’ to divide, concentrate or devalue their votes,” the ruling stated.
Jackson also wrote that plaintiffs are “simply raising a generalized grievance.”
Stacia Hall, a Republican candidate who lost to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2022, and Ralph Chittams, a Republican contender for an at-large seat on the city’s Council in 2018, were among the plaintiffs as reported by The Hill.
The D.C. law faced criticism on Capitol Hill, with the House passing resolutions last year disapproving of the bill and its criminal code.
By leveraging the authority granted to Congress under the D.C. Home Rule Act, the effort aimed to block the implementation of these measures in D.C.However, due to the Senate’s failure to vote on the House resolution within the 30-day timeframe, the D.C. bill automatically became law.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is no longer pursuing the 2024 GOP nomination, secured her first Republican Party presidential primary victory in Washington, D.C., defeating former President Donald Trump with 63% of the vote compared to Trump’s 33%, according to the Associated Press.
Haley’s campaign responded to the win by stating on social media: “This makes Nikki Haley the first woman to win a Republican primary in U.S. history.” Trump’s campaign took a different view, understandably.
“Tonight’s results in Washington, D.C., reaffirm the object of President Trump’s campaign—he will drain the swamp and put America first,” the Trump Campaign said in a statement.
“While Nikki has been soundly rejected throughout the rest of America, she was just crowned Queen of the Swamp by the lobbyists and DC insiders who want to protect the failed status quo. The swamp has claimed their queen. President Trump will fight for every American who is being let down by these very DC insiders and devastated by Joe Biden’s failures,” the statement added.
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