New York’s Highest Court Delivers Final Blow to Voting Rights for Foreigners

New York’s highest court has delivered the final blow to an attempt by state Democrats to extend voting rights to nearly a million foreign nationals.

In January 2022, Democrats on the 51-member New York City Council approved an ordinance to give more than 800,000 foreign nationals with green cards, visas, and work permits the opportunity to vote in citywide elections so long as they have resided in the city for at least 30 consecutive days.

Following lawsuits over the ordinance, the New York Supreme Court in June 2022 ruled that giving local voting rights to foreign nationals violated the state’s constitution, which explicitly reserves voting for American “citizens.”

In February, that ruling was upheld by the New York Appellate Division.

On Thursday, the State of New York Court of Appeals ruled that the ordinance is unconstitutional because the state constitution “makes clear what our case law has long held: Article II, section 1 restricts voting to citizens.”

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Whatever the future may bring, the New York Constitution as it stands today draws a firm line restricting voting to citizens. {snip} [Emphasis added]

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