The U.S. Department of Justice is withdrawing its lawsuit against Virginia, which was initially filed by the Biden administration to prevent the removal of noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls.
The lawsuit, filed in October, challenged Virginia’s efforts to remove approximately 1,600 individuals identified as potential noncitizens from its voter rolls. A federal judge had initially ordered the state to reinstate those individuals, but the U.S. Supreme Court later lifted that injunction, allowing Virginia to continue its voter roll maintenance program.
With the Supreme Court’s decision affirming the state’s authority to exclude noncitizens from voter eligibility, the DOJ’s decision to drop the case effectively concedes to the current legal standing. Without federal intervention, Virginia is now free to continue enforcing its voter roll policies.
Congressional Republicans sought to close legal loopholes through the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, though the effort was blocked by the then-Democrat-controlled Senate.
