Another rogue federal judge has thrown a big wrench in President Donald Trump’s attempts to make elections more secure, with just four weeks until the midterms.
U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz in Florida has declared a federal law passed three decades ago criminalizing noncitizen voting unconstitutional, potentially complicating the Trump administration’s expanding effort to prosecute foreign nationals accused of casting ballots in U.S. elections.
U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz — not surprisingly a Biden appointee — dismissed a federal charge Thursday against Chelsea Michelle Ann Cox, a Jamaican national accused of illegally voting in Florida during the 2020 presidential election.
Leibowitz concluded that the Constitution gives states — rather than Congress — sole authority to determine who is qualified to vote.
“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 wrote in his 31-page ruling.
But that interpretation flies in the face of the Constitution’s clear language.
While states are primarily empowered to make laws regarding elections, Congress has a role as well.
The Legislative Branch possesses the authority to “make or alter” laws regulating congressional elections as granted by the Elections Clause in the U.S. Constitution. This allows Congress to set national standards and enforce voter protections while states primarily manage the administration of elections.
That said, Leibowitz’s decision does not establish a right for noncitizens to vote.
Florida law requires voters to be U.S. citizens, as do the laws governing federal-election eligibility in every state. Leibowitz specifically said Florida remains free to prosecute people who violate its citizenship requirement.
Instead, the ruling concerns whether the federal government can independently prosecute noncitizens under 18 U.S.C. § 611, a law enacted by Congress in 1996 that generally makes it a crime for a noncitizen to vote in a federal election.
Leibowitz concluded Congress exceeded its constitutional authority when it enacted that prohibition.
“When you’re prosecuted based on a law that Congress did not have the authority to pass, the prosecution cannot stand,” the judge wrote.
Federal prosecutors accused Cox of knowingly casting a ballot in Broward County on Oct. 29, 2020.
According to prosecutors, Cox entered the United States from Jamaica on a tourist visa in 1999 and remained after the visa expired.
The government alleged she later used a fraudulent U.S. Virgin Islands birth certificate to obtain identification and register to vote in Florida in 2012.
She was charged in October 2025 with illegally voting as a noncitizen.
Those allegations were not resolved at trial because Leibowitz dismissed the federal voting charge on constitutional grounds.
The Justice Department quickly moved to challenge the ruling.
The Trump administration filed a notice of appeal Friday, sending the dispute to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The case could become important well beyond Cox’s prosecution.
The Justice Department under Trump has dramatically increased investigations of suspected noncitizen voting since Trump returned to office.
At least 60 people have been charged with noncitizen voting since January 2025, according to Reuters.
Federal authorities have intensified the effort ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, with Homeland Security investigators examining hundreds of potential cases around the country.
Several other defendants are making the same constitutional argument Cox successfully raised.
Reuters reported last month that defendants in at least five cases in Florida and Wisconsin were challenging Congress’ authority to enact the 1996 prohibition.
A Reuters review found only 129 people had been charged under the statute during its first three decades, making the administration’s recent increase in prosecutions significant by comparison.
Confirmed cases nevertheless represent a very small fraction of the tens of millions of ballots cast in federal elections.
Leibowitz’s ruling currently applies only to Cox’s case.
Other federal judges are not required to follow it, and the decision does not automatically dismiss pending prosecutions elsewhere.
It nevertheless appears to be the first federal court decision declaring the 1996 noncitizen-voting statute unconstitutional, giving other defendants a new ruling to cite when challenging their prosecutions.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
