A New York City judge on Monday struck down a landmark law extending the right to vote in local elections to noncitizen immigrants who live, work and pay taxes in the city.
Richmond County Supreme Court Judge Ralph Porzio said in a ruling issued in Staten Island that Local Law 11, passed by the New York City Council late last year, violated the state constitution.
“The New York State Constitution expressly states that citizens meeting the age and residency requirements are entitled to register and vote in elections,” Porzio wrote in the 13-page ruling.
“Though voting is a right so many citizens take for granted, the City of New York cannot ‘obviate’ the restrictions imposed by the Constitution,” he added.
The ruling negates an action taken by the City Council in December, when it voted 33-14 with two abstentions to approve Local Law 11 allowing noncitizens to vote in elections for positions such as mayor, city council and comptroller among others.
It was specifically crafted to not extend to state or federal elections in a bid to pass constitutional muster. But Porzio, a Republican Supreme Court judge who was elected in 2018, agreed with a legal challenge brought by a group of primarily Republican opponents, including Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella and state GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy.
When the measure was approved, immigrant advocates and other supporters hailed Local Law 11 as a landmark measure which would force political candidates to respond to the concerns of tax-paying immigrants as well to those of higher-income voters.
They argued that while the state Constitution states that “every citizen shall be entitled to vote,” it doesn’t say explicitly that only citizens can vote and that the language should be interpreted as a “floor” rather than a “ceiling.”
Both former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and current mayor Eric Adams, while saying they backed expanded voting rights for noncitizen taxpayers, had expressed reservations about the scope of the City Council’s authority in the matter.
The New York Immigrant Coalition said Porzio’s ruling came as “no surprise” and vowed an appeal to the state’s top court.
“The Republican opponents to the law specifically placed their lawsuit in a court they knew would be favorable to them,” coalition executive director Murad Awawdeh said in a statement. “We remain firm in our certitude that municipal voting is legal and plan to support the appeal of this judge’s decision. We refuse to allow today’s verdict to further the disenfranchisement of Black and brown communities in New York City.”
Copyright 2022 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
YAY !!!!!
It’s June, and Judicial sanity is busting out all over. The problem however is that non-citizen illegals will continue to illegally vote Democrat in New York anyway, just as they have for years. Why else did Mayorkas fly so many border jumpers into the State and city of New York?,,at taxpayers expense of course.
Pity we can’t now get NY TO ROUND UP everyone of these illegals, and mass deport them all.. RIGHT ALONG SIDE THE Bleeding heart libtards, who pushed this sort of unconstitutional bull…
Msn will censor you if you say ” illegals are not citizens “
Now the question has to be how many are on the books as voters? Is so, how are they going to be removed since many ineligible voters, dead, moved etc. remian active voters for a very long time, especially in liber jurisdictions?
I’m guessing, even harder than taking the dead people out of voting registers. They are the Progressives Socialist most loyal supporters
Hell, knowing the left, they will FIGHT and ignore court orders, to REMOVE anyone from the voter rolls..
Wow!
What a concept! I’m really excited about this!
If you’re NOT a legal citizen of this Country, you are not allowed to vote who We put in charge to run this Country.
This is such a radically cognizant idea, it just might spread to other Countries, who have been weighed down by uninvited trespassers who come in and try to have their “fair” input to how the Country is run…
Wait…
What?
We’ve been the only one? We’re the only one to allow anything like this to happen in any form?
Well isn’t that a load of fetted chicken gizzards!
What gets my goat, is why is it we never see CRIMINAL charges filed, against the legislatures, who KEEP KNOWINGLY MAKING THESE unconstitutional laws?!?!?