{"id":581,"date":"2024-11-11T09:31:07","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T09:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/supreme-court-grants-virginias-appeal-to-purge-voter-rolls-ahead-of-election-day\/"},"modified":"2024-11-11T09:31:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T09:31:07","slug":"supreme-court-grants-virginias-appeal-to-purge-voter-rolls-ahead-of-election-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/supreme-court-grants-virginias-appeal-to-purge-voter-rolls-ahead-of-election-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court grants Virginia\u2019s appeal to purge voter rolls ahead of Election Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Supreme Court<\/a> on Wednesday granted Virginia\u2019s emergency request to revive Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin<\/a>\u2019s systematic purge of voter rolls ahead of Election Day.<\/p>\n

The court’s three Democratic appointees dissented from the order<\/a>. The Republican-appointed majority didn\u2019t explain its reasoning, nor did the dissenters, which isn\u2019t unusual in emergency litigation. <\/p>\n

The Republican win from the Roberts Court follows Tuesday\u2019s nearly unanimous rejection of<\/a> former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s attempt to get off ballots in battleground states Wisconsin and Michigan, which he wanted to do to help Republican Donald Trump\u2019s campaign. <\/p>\n

The justices are also expected to rule soon on an emergency bid<\/a> from Republicans to block provisional ballots in Pennsylvania. The impending decision in the case from that <\/strong>swing state could provide a fuller picture of how the court is handling litigation in this election, which could be a close one between Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n

A federal judge on Friday had blocked<\/a> Virginia\u2019s program, citing the National Voter Registration Act<\/a>. That federal law bars states from systematically removing ineligible voters within 90 days of a federal election. Virginia argued to the justices<\/a> that the law doesn\u2019t apply to removing noncitizens and that its removal process is individualized, not systematic.<\/p>\n

Opposing the emergency bid alongside voting rights groups<\/a>, the federal government said that<\/a> Virginia has \u201cno legitimate interest in continuing practices that plainly violated federal law.\u201d The government said that state officials \u201cpervasively invoke alleged harms that they have failed to prove. … Notably, applicants have provided no reason to believe that any noncitizens have voted in past Virginia elections, or that any are likely to do so in the upcoming election.\u201d <\/p>\n

In ruling against the state, U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles said that<\/a> its program has curtailed the rights of eligible voters to cast their ballots, citing evidence that eligible citizens have had their registrations canceled. The Joe Biden appointee said that \u201crestoring the right to vote of all eligible voters affected by this program strongly outweighs the burden to Defendants [Virginia] of restoring those names to the rolls.\u201d <\/p>\n

She added that officials could still remove ineligible registrants through individualized inquiry.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said it<\/a> was likewise \u201cunpersuaded\u201d by the state\u2019s argument that it wasn\u2019t violating the federal voter registration law. \u201cHere, the challenged program does not require communication with or particularized investigation into any specific individual,\u201d a unanimous appeals court panel said in the order that prompted Supreme Court review. \u201cRather, the inclusion of a person\u2019s name on a list electronically compared to other agency databases is enough for removal from the voter rolls.\u201d<\/p>\n

The panel of Democratic appointees said the state\u2019s argument that the law doesn\u2019t cover noncitizens \u201cviolates basic principles of statutory construction by focusing on a differently worded statutory provision that is not at issue here and proposing a strained reading of the Quiet Period Provision to avoid rendering that other provision absurd or unconstitutional. That is not how courts interpret statutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court’s order on Wednesday pauses the trial judge\u2019s ruling pending further litigation in the appeals court and potentially the high court.<\/p>\n

In the 2020 election that Trump lost to Biden, the Democrat won Virginia<\/a>, where early voting is already underway this year, by about half a million votes.<\/p>\n

While this appeal only concerned Virginia, the state was backed<\/a> at the high court by Republican interests<\/a> and states, including a brief<\/a> led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach<\/a>, who was previously<\/a> held in contempt and sanctioned for defying<\/a> court orders during voting litigation. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Subscribe to the\u00a0<\/strong>Deadline: Legal Newsletter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in Donald Trump\u2019s legal cases.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jordan Rubin<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Jordan\u00a0Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney\u2019s Office in Manhattan\u00a0and is the author of \u201cBizarro,” a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined BLN, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted Virginia\u2019s emergency request to revive Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin\u2019s systematic purge of voter rolls ahead of Election Day. The court’s three Democratic appointees dissented from the order. The Republican-appointed majority didn\u2019t explain its reasoning, nor did the dissenters, which isn\u2019t unusual in emergency litigation. The Republican win from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}