On Monday, Virginia received backing from twenty-six Republican attorneys general as they called on the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that had reinstated voting rights for 1,600 individuals.
The amicus brief supports Virginia’s argument that the decision is excessively broad and lacks validity under a section of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which requires states to suspend all systematic voter roll maintenance 90 days prior to an election. This support from every Republican-led state in the U.S. has garnered significant attention as the election approaches.
In their brief, the attorneys general urged the court to approve Virginia’s emergency request and reinstate the status quo, emphasizing that this action would align with legal requirements and help ensure that noncitizens do not participate in voting during the upcoming election.
The states expressed their support for Virginia in opposing the Justice Department’s interpretation of NVRA protections, claiming it was excessively broad.
They further asserted that Virginia’s existing law was not intended to systematically eliminate residents from the voter registration lists, contrary to the assertions made by Justice Department officials in their recent lawsuit.
The Justice Department contended that the removals occurred too close to the elections on November 5 and breached the quiet period clause of NVRA. This argument received validation from a federal judge in Alexandria, who ordered that the impacted voters be reinstated on the rolls, a decision later upheld by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In the amicus brief, attorneys characterize the decision as a broad interpretation of the NVRA that transforms a procedural law into a substantive federal regulation governing voter eligibility in elections, an interpretation that could raise significant constitutional concerns regarding the NVRA itself.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has maintained that the removal of voters was conducted legally, citing a process established by a 2006 state law passed under then-Governor Tim Kaine, who is a Democrat.
This procedure involved comparing the noncitizen list from the state Department of Motor Vehicles with its registered voter list. Individuals identified as noncitizens were notified that their voter registrations would be canceled unless they could verify their citizenship within 14 days.
Governor Youngkin and Virginia’s Attorney General Jason S. Miyares contend that the decisions made by the lower courts are individualized rather than systematic, countering claims made by the Justice Department earlier this month.
They assert that reinstating these rulings just days prior to an election could create additional disorder in the voting process, a viewpoint supported by a coalition of Republican states in their filing on Monday.
They argued that this Court must dismiss the Respondents’ attempt to alter the regulations during the ongoing process and reinstate the previous state of affairs. The Constitution assigns the authority over voter eligibility to the citizens of Virginia, who have determined that noncitizens are ineligible to cast their votes.