Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin called the U.S. Supreme Court’s stay of a lower federal court ruling that ordered the Commonwealth to return noncitizens to the voter rolls a “win for common sense and election fairness.”
The Supreme Court order, issued earlier today, says the Oct. 25th order of the United States District Court for the Eastern District “is stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely sought.”
“Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court.”
See the brief order here.
Youngkin’s statement and media comments responding to the stay capped a flurry of motions, emergency appeals, and “friend of the court” briefs after federal Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles, an appointee of the Biden administration, sided with lawsuits by progressive left groups and the Department of Justice to order noncitizens back on the voter rolls after they attested they were noncitizens.
A three-member panel on the Fourth Circuit rejected Virginia’s appeal of Giles’ order, which led to its emergency appeal to the Supreme Court to block the ruling.
Gov. Youngkin called the high court’s stay a victory for common sense and election fairness.
“I am grateful for the work of Attorney General Jason Miyares on this critical fight to protect the fundamental rights of U.S. citizens.
“Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections. Virginians also know that we have paper ballots, counting machines not connected to the internet, a strong chain of custody process, signature verification, monitored and secured drop boxes, and a ‘triple check’ vote counting process to tabulate results.
“Virginians can cast their ballots on Election Day knowing that Virginia’s elections are fair, secure, and free from politically-motivated interference.”
The DOJ and allied groups had claimed Virginia’s maintenance program of removing ineligible registrations from the rolls violated the so-called 90-day “quiet period” of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
Critics cried politics, pointing to the clear language in the law that allows for voter-roll errors to be corrected, which is not subject to the “quiet period” that governs so-called systemic removals.
The Supreme Court’s stay keeps the controversial order on hold until a full appeal of the Fourth Circuit’s decision (siding with Judge Giles) can be heard.
Reaction was pouring in Wednesday from election security groups lauding the decision to block a ruling that effectively forced Virginia to violate its own statutes and a plain-letter reading of the NVRA’s maintenance provisions.
“The people of Virginia have every right to insist that the number of non-citizens voting in their elections is zero,” said Derek Lyons, president of election-law firm RITE, one of the groups that filed “Amicus” briefs supporting Virginia’s appeal.
“The federal government’s alliance with far-left activists to compel Virginia to expose its elections to non-citizen participation was an outrageous abuse of authority. Fortunately, the Supreme Court has put a halt to that effort, delivering today a victory for commonsense, public confidence, and election integrity.”
Virginia’s appeal of the Fourth Circuit may help develop case law to clarify what experts call a flawed reading of the NVRA for years.
The “plain text of the [NVRA] does not require states to keep an individual registered who was never eligible to be registered in the first place,” election-law expert Hans Von Spakovsky wrote in a legal brief for the Heritage Foundation.
He added: Any interpretation of the NVRA to keep noncitizens on the voter rolls — when federal and state laws prohibit it, “would render the NVRA unconstitutional.” ##
See more background here:
VA Briefs SCOTUS Re: Noncitizens on Rolls
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