A federal judge in Miami on Thursday dismissed the criminal case against a Jamaican woman accused of illegally voting, ruling that the four-decade-old law barring noncitizens from voting in federal elections is unconstitutional in what appears to be the first such finding by any court.
The 31-page order by Judge David S. Leibowitz applies only to the defendant, Chelsea Cox, who was charged in October 2025 with a misdemeanor for illegally voting in the 2020 election. But it could complicate the Justice Department’s push to prosecute noncitizen voting, a practice that most election scholars say is rare and that President Trump has long alleged, without evidence, is widespread. The department moved to appeal shortly after the ruling; a spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Under the Constitution, only the states can set voter qualifications, not Congress, Judge Leibowitz wrote, so Florida prosecutors could pursue Ms. Cox under state law but the federal government could not. “This is an unusual criminal case,” he wrote of the misdemeanor statute, known as 18 U.S.C. Section 611. “Until very recently, no federal court has been presented with the following question about that statute: Did Congress have Constitutional authority to enact it? That’s unusual, all by itself.”
The judge, appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., gave the government’s position little quarter. Its “principal defense of the statute’s constitutionality invokes a single Supreme Court case that is very, very weak,” he wrote. “So why does the Government lead with such a weak hand? Because it’s the best hand it can play.”
The ruling reaches only the statute making it a misdemeanor for noncitizens to vote. It does not cover a separate law against falsely claiming citizenship in order to vote, another tool the Justice Department has used in recent months.
Federal prosecutors accused Ms. Cox of overstaying a tourist visa more than 20 years ago and obtaining a Florida driver’s license with a fraudulent U.S. Virgin Islands birth certificate. They said she cast ballots in several federal elections beginning in 2012; the 2020 vote led to last year’s charge.
Her lawyers moved to dismiss this year, arguing the law “exceeds Congress’s authority and intrudes on a power reserved to the States.” Prosecutors answered that the Constitution “provides that the federal government play a significant role in overseeing such elections,” writing: “Whether it is to regulate the manner of federal elections or to preserve a distinct privilege of federal citizenship, surely the United States has the right to exclude non-citizens from voting in federal elections.”
To sort out the question, Judge Leibowitz enlisted an outside voice: Paul Clement, a solicitor general under President George W. Bush and one of the country’s best-known Supreme Court advocates. In a brief filed over the summer, Mr. Clement concluded that Congress likely “overstepped constitutional bounds in enacting §611.” “States, not the federal government, determine voter qualifications,” he wrote, noting that while no state now allows noncitizens to vote in federal elections, some states once did.
Ms. Cox’s lawyer, Bruce Udolf, said by phone on Friday night that his client was “gratified” by the ruling and that it was a “huge relief to her.” He said Ms. Cox recently underwent a medical procedure and that he was working with the government on what comes next, including whether the Trump administration moves to deport her.