Another federal judge appointed by a Democratic president has issued a jaw-dropping ruling that is beyond puzzling to legal scholars.
U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz, a Biden appointee in Florida, has dismissed a criminal charge against a Jamaican national accused of illegally voting in the 2020 presidential election, ruling that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority when it enacted the federal law used to prosecute her.
Leibowitz of the Southern District of Florida issued the 31-page ruling Thursday in the case of Chelsea Michelle Ann Cox, a Florida resident who prosecutors say knowingly cast a ballot despite not being a U.S. citizen.
Leibowitz, who was nominated to the federal bench by former President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in 2024, ruled that 18 U.S.C. § 611 — the federal statute generally prohibiting noncitizens from voting in federal elections — could not constitutionally be applied to Cox.
“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 claimed.
Every state currently requires U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections, and Leibowitz specifically said Florida remains free to prohibit and prosecute the conduct Cox is accused of committing.
“Can the State of Florida prohibit and punish the exact conduct Defendant Cox allegedly engaged in here?” Leibowitz wrote. “Florida can and does.”
Instead, the dispute centers on whether Congress itself possesses constitutional authority to establish citizenship as a qualification for voting in federal elections and prosecute violations.
Congress enacted Section 611 in 1996 as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.
The statute makes it generally unlawful for a noncitizen to vote in an election involving candidates for president, vice president, the U.S. Senate or House.
Cox entered the United States from Jamaica as a tourist in 1999 and overstayed her visa, according to court records.
Prosecutors allege she later used a fraudulent U.S. Virgin Islands birth certificate to obtain a Florida driver’s license and registered to vote in 2012.
Cox allegedly voted in elections between 2012 and 2020, although the federal charge before Leibowitz concerned her ballot in the 2020 election because earlier votes fell outside the applicable statute of limitations.
The Justice Department argued that Congress possesses authority to regulate federal elections under the Constitution’s Elections Clause and through its powers over immigration and foreign affairs. Leibowitz rejected those arguments.
The Constitution gives states authority to determine voter qualifications for congressional elections by tying eligibility to the qualifications established for voters in each state’s legislature elections.
Leibowitz concluded that allowing Congress to establish an independent federal qualification would permit lawmakers to create “its own special electorate” separate from the qualifications established by individual states.
“Some legal principles are so fundamental that they form American constitutional bedrock,” Leibowitz wrote. “When you’re prosecuted based on a law that Congress did not have the authority to pass, the prosecution cannot stand.”
The decision appears to be the first federal ruling finding the 1996 statute unconstitutional on those grounds. It is also limited in scope.
Cox brought an “as-applied” constitutional challenge rather than asking the judge to invalidate the statute nationwide.
Leibowitz’s decision therefore dismisses the charge against Cox but does not bind other federal judges considering similar cases elsewhere in the country.
The ruling nevertheless could have consequences for the Trump administration’s broader effort to prosecute noncitizens accused of voting.
The Justice Department has charged at least 60 people with noncitizen voting since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, according to Reuters.
Approximately 45 similar prosecutions were pending nationwide when Leibowitz issued his decision, and several defendants have raised constitutional arguments resembling Cox’s.
Other federal judges have not necessarily agreed.
U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra, for example, rejected a similar constitutional challenge in September in another South Florida prosecution, underscoring that the issue remains unsettled and could ultimately require resolution by an appeals court or the Supreme Court.
The Justice Department has already begun that process. Federal prosecutors filed notice Friday that they will appeal Leibowitz’s ruling, setting up a potential fight before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
