A federal judge in South Florida has thrown out a federal misdemeanor charge against a Jamaican national accused of voting illegally in Broward County in 2020, ruling that 18 U.S.C. § 611 is unconstitutional as applied to Chelsea Michelle Ann Cox. U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz dismissed the case against Cox on Thursday, October 1, 2026, finding that the statute could not constitutionally be applied to her.
Cox was accused of casting a ballot in the 2020 presidential election in Broward County on October 29, 2020, according to The National News Desk. Federal prosecutors alleged she had overstayed a tourist visa and used a fake U.S. Virgin Islands birth certificate to obtain identification and register to vote. Leibowitz, a Biden appointee, issued a 31-page opinion concluding that the federal ban could not support her prosecution, effectively ending her federal case for now.
The ruling leaned heavily on an unusual procedural move Leibowitz made, appointing Clement & Murphy PLLC, with Paul Clement and Chadwick Harper among its members, as a pro bono court amicus curiae to independently analyze whether Congress had the power to criminalize noncitizen voting at all. As reported by the Southern District of Florida Blog, the judge said the amicus brief proved central to evaluating arguments that neither Cox's defense nor federal prosecutors had fully addressed.
A Constitutional Fight Rooted in a 2013 Supreme Court Case
Leibowitz cited Article I, Article II, and the 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in concluding that Congress can regulate election procedures but generally cannot determine who gets to vote. His reasoning drew heavily on the Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., in which Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that under the Qualifications Clauses, states hold sole authority to set voter qualifications while Congress is limited to regulating election procedures, according to the Cato Institute.
Federal prosecutors had leaned on a 1970 precedent, Oregon v. Mitchell, but the Southern District of Florida Blog notes that Scalia had previously characterized that case as having minimal precedential value. Leibowitz rejected prosecutors' arguments that the federal noncitizen voting ban was valid under Congress's powers over immigration, foreign affairs, and election administration, finding instead that the U.S. Constitution generally reserves authority over voter eligibility to the states.
A Law Born in 1996, Rarely Used Until Recently
The federal ban, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 611, was enacted as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, signed by President Bill Clinton, and carries misdemeanor penalties of up to one year in prison or a fine of up to $100,000, per the Washington Times. Before 1996, noncitizen voting was largely governed by individual state constitutions and local ordinances rather than a single federal criminal statute.
For most of the law's history, prosecutors rarely used it. A July 2026 Reuters analysis of federal court dockets found that prosecutors have charged a total of 129 people nationwide under the statute since 1996, resulting in 73 convictions or guilty pleas. A March 31, 2026, executive order directed the Justice Department to prioritize noncitizen voting prosecutions; Reuters found that federal authorities charged at least 60 people under the law between January 2025 and October 2026, accounting for nearly half of all charges brought since the statute's creation, as the Trump administration made noncitizen voter fraud enforcement a central pillar of its election policy.
Florida's Own Ban Remains Untouched
Dismissing the federal charge does not clear Cox of all legal exposure. Florida retained its own citizenship requirement for voting, and state law independently prohibits noncitizens from casting ballots. Leibowitz explicitly emphasized in his ruling that Florida retains full constitutional power to prosecute noncitizen voting under its own statutes, the Cato Institute reports. Cox's potential deportation also remained unresolved following the dismissal.
James Percival, general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security, commented on the ruling on X, mocking politicians who have denied that noncitizens have voted in elections. Separately, the U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to use its revamped federal voter eligibility database, which the administration plans to use to help ensure noncitizens do not vote, per The National News Desk.
Reactions Split Along Predictable Lines
Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, criticized Leibowitz's ruling as “patently wrong,” arguing that while states have constitutional authority to set voter qualifications, Congress holds plenary authority over naturalization and can ban noncitizens from voting in federal elections. Von Spakovsky predicted the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will overturn the decision, and the Cato Institute reports that federal prosecutors are indeed expected to appeal the dismissal there.
Legal commentators stress that Leibowitz's ruling is an “as-applied” decision specific to Cox's case, meaning it does not bind other federal district judges handling pending noncitizen voting prosecutions elsewhere in the country, the Cato Institute notes. Still, the decision could create constitutional obstacles for a Senate version of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which proposes proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration.
How Rare Is Noncitizen Voting, Really?
A Brennan Center for Justice study analyzing 23.5 million votes across 42 jurisdictions in the 2016 general election found only 30 suspected instances of noncitizen voting — roughly 0.0001% of all votes cast, Hoodline has reported. Voting rights advocates argue federal sweeps target isolated cases, while conservative groups maintain strict enforcement remains vital to voter integrity.
The statute itself has long included a carve-out for local home rule: § 611 permits noncitizens to vote in local elections if authorized by state or local law. Court amicus counsel noted that this local carve-out underscored Congress's intent to regulate voter eligibility specifically in federal races, not local ones.
Other noncitizen-voting cases this year included cases in Del Rio and a Lynn voting case, as federal prosecutors ramped up enforcement ahead of the 2026 midterms. Whether Leibowitz's reasoning holds up will likely depend on how the 11th Circuit, and ultimately other courts, treat the constitutional question he raised.
