CNN’s Paula Reid says it’s ‘a bit of a surprise’ SCOTUS allowed Virginia to remove noncitizens from voter rolls

CNN legal correspondent Paula Reid said it’s surprising that the Supreme Court allowed Virginia on Wednesday to remove individuals identified as noncitizens from voter rolls.

The justices paused a lower court ruling that blocked officials from eliminating around 1,600 people whom the state asserted “self-identified” as noncitizens. Reid, on “CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta,” noted the Supreme Court’s decision “is incredibly significant” due to being one of its first important rulings before the November election.

WATCH:

“This is incredibly significant because this is one of the court’s first significant decisions ahead of next week’s election. Here they are allowing the state of Virginia to continue with a program that will purge suspected noncitizens from its voter registration rolls,” Reid said. “This is a bit of a surprise because the trial court and the appellate court sided with the Biden Administration that objected to this purge, saying that the state cannot under federal law remove large groups of people from the voter rolls within 90 days of an election, that there was nothing stopping them from investigating individual voters and removing them from the voter rolls.”

“Now, former President Trump has seized on this issue in Virginia as have other Republicans as a way that they should be able to remove suspected noncitizens, calling it sort of a commonsense move,” she continued. “And here a divided court, a court divided across partisan lines, siding with Republicans. Now, [Republican Virginia] Governor [Glenn] Youngkin, who is implementing or attempting to implement this program, he has issued a statement saying, ‘This is a victory for common sense and election fairness.’”

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Elena Kagan would not have approved Virginia’s request, according to the order.

U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Giles, a Biden appointee, ruled Friday that Virginia must cease its efforts to eliminate noncitizen voters within 90 days of the election and reinstate registered voters removed under the initiative. When an appeals court on Sunday upheld the decision, the state promptly submitted an emergency application to the Supreme Court.

“The injunction, which prohibits the application of a law that has been on the books since the Justice Department precleared it in 2006, will also irreparably injure Virginia’s sovereignty, confuse her voters, overload her election machinery and administrators, and likely lead noncitizens to think they are permitted to vote, a criminal offence that will cancel the franchise of eligible voters,” the state asserted in its Sunday emergency application.

The Department of Justice first sued Virginia on Oct. 12, alleging the state breached the National Voter Registration Act by modifying the voter rolls within 90 days of the election when the “risk of disenfranchising eligible voters is greatest.” Youngkin signed an executive order in August mandating election officials expedite the elimination of ineligible noncitizen voters from voter rolls.

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