A Miami-based federal judge on Thursday dismissed a Justice Department case accusing a Jamaican national of illegally voting and held that a 1996 federal law criminalizing noncitizen voting is unconstitutional as applied to her. The decision lands as the Trump administration presses federal charges against alleged noncitizen voters nationwide.
US District Judge David Leibowitz, nominated by former President Joe Biden, ruled that the Constitution leaves voter qualifications to the states, not Congress. The ruling applies only to Florida resident Chelsea Cox and does not bind other judges. About 45 similar cases remain pending around the country.
Cox was charged in October 2025 with illegally voting in the 2020 election. Federal prosecutors have charged at least 60 people with noncitizen voting since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025. Illegal voting can also trigger deportation.
Leibowitz wrote that under the US Constitution only states can set voter qualifications. Every state requires US citizenship to vote. He said it was up to Florida, not the Department of Justice, to prosecute Cox for violating that requirement.
The judge addressed the core state-power question directly in the opinion.
"Can the State of Florida prohibit and punish the exact conduct Defendant Cox allegedly engaged in here? This has already been decided elsewhere and is not addressed here: Florida can and does,"
Federal prosecutors had argued Congress is best equipped to handle immigration and foreign affairs. In a court filing they stated, “Foreign interference in elections is clearly within the purview of Congress.” Leibowitz rejected the federal theory in this case.
The decision appears to be the first time a federal court has found the 1996 law, known as the ban on “voting by an alien,” a violation of the US Constitution. At least four other defendants have challenged the same statute on similar grounds. The New York Post reported the Thursday dismissal and the constitutional holding.
According to a government court filing, Cox entered the United States as a tourist in 1999 and remained after her visa expired the next year. She used a fraudulent US Virgin Islands birth certificate to obtain a Florida driver’s license. She then used those documents to register to vote in 2012.
Records show she voted in federal elections from 2012 to 2020. Only the 2020 election fell within the statute of limitations, which is why that race became the basis of the federal charge. The case did not allege a conspiracy to sway an election, back a candidate, or take payment for a vote.
A Reuters investigation published in July found Cox was one of just 129 people charged under the “voting by an alien” law in the period it reviewed. Most accused defendants were lawful permanent residents who registered by mistake or through misguided advice, that investigation reported. The administration has also investigated noncitizen voting and deported defendants, sometimes years after criminal cases closed.
Cox’s attorney, Bruce Udolf, welcomed the dismissal. He urged the government not to pursue further action against her and cited her declining health.
"This is a situation that cries out for discretion by government officials, and they’d be well-advised to walk away from this without further reprisal against her,"
Illegal voting is grounds for deportation. Neither the White House nor the Justice Department immediately responded to requests for comment on the ruling.
The Trump administration has made documented citizenship and election integrity a central enforcement priority. Federal prosecutors have moved cases across multiple states, including charges spanning seven states in a recent noncitizen voting crackdown. Parallel charging activity has continued as midterm elections approach.
Trump has said stricter enforcement of documented citizenship is needed to protect election integrity. On July 16 he said 278,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in California, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Five days later, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, said about 400 noncitizens in her state voted after a software error mistakenly registered about 6,600 people in 2023-24. The Justice Department demanded names, nationalities, and addresses in the New Jersey matter.
State authorities have also brought their own cases. In Texas, the attorney general has pursued foreign nationals over illegal voting in the 2024 elections, including charges against seven defendants. Those state prosecutions sit outside the federal statute Leibowitz invalidated in Cox’s case.
Leibowitz’s order dismisses the federal case against Cox. It does not erase state citizenship requirements. Florida still can prohibit and punish the same conduct, and the judge said the state already does so. The opinion is not binding on other federal judges, though defendants in pending cases may try to use it as persuasive authority.
Investigators and prosecutors still face open questions in the remaining docket. About 45 noncitizen voting cases are pending around the country. Courts will need to determine whether other as-applied or facial challenges track Leibowitz’s reasoning or reject it. Separate federal actions continue, including DOJ cases alleging noncitizen voting and false citizenship claims across seven states.
Individual prosecutions also keep moving in other districts. One recent matter involved an Indian national indicted in Minnesota for allegedly voting illegally in the 2024 election. Those cases rest on their own facts and charging decisions.
Election officials and prosecutors still must verify citizenship, police fraudulent identity documents, and decide whether state or federal charges fit each file. Cox’s case turned on a fraudulent birth certificate, a Florida driver’s license, and years of federal ballots cast before the 2020 race that fell inside the limitations period.
Congress wrote the 1996 criminal ban. Leibowitz held that voter qualifications belong to the states under the Constitution. That split leaves state attorneys general and local election officials as the primary line of enforcement in jurisdictions that choose to act, while federal prosecutors weigh appeals and the remaining 45-odd cases.
Nationwide charging work has not stopped. Federal prosecutors have also pursued larger fraud sweeps, including efforts described in coverage of arrests and indictments in a nationwide voter fraud crackdown. How courts treat the 1996 statute next will shape which tools remain available before November’s midterms.
When federal judges strip Congress of a clear criminal tool against noncitizen voting, states must enforce their own citizenship rules without hesitation, and the public still deserves ballots cast only by eligible citizens.
