Balkinization  

Friday, September 04, 2026

Does Congress Have the Power to Ban Non-Citizen Voting?

Gerard N. Magliocca

The Administration's request for emergency relief with respect to its proposed regulations on mail-in voting raises complex issues that cannot be decided on the papers. The Court should hear argument and get full briefing, which in practice means that the rules probably cannot be implemented this year.

For example, the Executive Order at issue in the current litigation starts out by saying: "The right to vote in Federal elections is reserved exclusively for citizens of the United States under the Constitution and Federal law." This is a contestable proposition. The Constitution does not set forth a rule that only US citizens can vote. Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment implies only that states can ban aliens from voting. Before and after the Fourteenth Amendment's ratification, some states did permit some aliens to vote. If the Constitution reserves that question for the states, then I'm not sure if Congress can make it illegal for non-citizens to vote, which is part of the statutory basis for the Executive Order.

But there are arguments on the other side. John Bingham was most prominent constitutional leader who thought that the Constitution (at least the 1787 version) barred non-citizens from voting. He made this argument at length to Congress, though his view was rejected in the 1850s for the admission of states like Minnesota that permitted alien voting.

The upshot is that these are deep waters that make a quick ruling with limited filings unwise. 




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