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from https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/03/20/noncitizen-vote-unconstitutional-nyc/?utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=gnews&utm_campaign=CDAqEAgAKgcICjC19MELMNeP2QMwns3bAQ&utm_content=rundown

NYC Law Allowing Noncitizens to Vote is Unconstitutional, State’s
Highest Court Rules
The 6-1 decision comes as New York faces growing pressure to roll back immigrants’ rights, including noncitizen driver’s licenses.
by Claudia Irizarry Aponte
March 20, 2025, 1:54 p.m.
R
An absentee ballot box sat near the entrance to an early voting site in
The Shed at Hudson Yards.
An absentee ballot box sat near the entrance to an early voting site in
The Shed at Hudson Yards, Nov. 1, 2023. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY Support local news today!
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New York’s highest court ruled that a 2021 local law that allowed some
legal permanent residents to vote in New York City elections is unconstitutional, in a decision released Thursday.

The 6-1 decision by the New York State Court of Appeals striking down
the controversial law is a setback to efforts to expand immigrant rights
in the city. And it comes as the state gears up for a showdown with the
Trump administration over other laws benefiting noncitizens, including a
state law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.

“Whatever the future may bring, the New York Constitution as it stands
today draws a firm line restricting voting to citizens,” Chief Judge
Rowan Wilson wrote in the majority opinion, which also found the Council
did not violate municipal home rule law. Associate Judge Jenny Rivera,
the sole dissenter, argued that New York City had the right to act under
home rule.

In a statement, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said that while the
Council “appreciate[s]” the judge’s decision on home rule, “we disagree that the State Constitution bars municipalities from expanding the local franchise to noncitizens as noted by Justice Rivera in her dissent.”

“While we are disappointed with today’s overall ruling, we respect the judiciary’s role in our democracy to make these decisions,” added Adams. “The Council, as always, will continue to support and protect our
immigrant community members.”

The decision ends a four-year fight to determine who has the right to
vote in the city’s municipal elections. New York City has an estimated 800,000 green card and work permit holders and other legal permanent
residents who would have been eligible under the law.

“The highest court in New York State has spoken. We respect the court’s ruling,” said city law department spokesperson Nicholas Paolucci.

‘Get Out of the Way’
Local Law 11, sponsored by then-Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez, now the
city transportation commissioner, granted people with green cards, work
permits and DACA status the right to vote in municipal elections. It
passed in November 2021 over the objections of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio
with a 33-to-14 vote, just short of a veto-proof majority in the
Council. De Blasio left office weeks later and Mayor Eric Adams allowed
the measure to lapse into law in the first days of his term.

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The day after the law took effect in January 2022, local Republican
elected officials led by Staten Island Borough Vito Fossella, along with
the Republican National Committee and the Republican State Committee,
filed a lawsuit arguing the law was unconstitutional and that the 30-day residency requirement in order to register to vote was too short.

Spokespersons for Fossella and the RNC did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.

Other city Republicans praised the Court of Appeals decision striking
down the law. GOP mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa said the law did little
to bring disenfranchised U.S. citizens to the polls, and urged local
lawmakers to address the issue of low voter participation first.

“With one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the country, our city
needs to do more to engage working people who feel shut out of the
process,” Sliwa said in a statement. “Before expanding voting rights to noncitizens, we should focus on ensuring that more New Yorkers feel
their voices matter.”

The decision comes as other legislative efforts to expand immigrants’
rights in New York are under assault — in tandem with a push to force
the state to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.


Last week, Trump administration “border czar” Tom Homan met with
Republican state lawmakers to discuss revoking the state’s 2019 Green
Light Law, which allows noncitizens to obtain driver’s licenses and
restricts federal government access to personal information.

Homan and state Republicans also discussed the state’s proposed Laken
Riley Act. Following the federal law passed earlier this year requiring detention of immigrants charged with certain crimes, it would require
state law enforcement to report to federal immigration authorities when
they arrest a noncitizen crime suspect.

“You’re not gonna stop us, New York State,” Homan said in a press conference flanked by state Republicans in the state Capitol a week ago.
“If you don’t get out of the way, we’re going to do our job.”

Republicans in Congress are attempting to crack down on noncitizen
voting, which is illegal in all 50 states and accounts for a small
fraction of the small number of ballots improperly cast in federal
elections.

Already, several states have already passed their own versions of a U.S.
House bill, known as the SAVE Act, which requires voters to show proof
of citizenship documents at the polls, including their birth
certificates. They have led to some unintended consequences.
In local elections in New Hampshire last week, married women who changed
their last names had a difficult time casting their ballots because
their IDs did not match the name on their birth certificates as newly
required by state law. One woman told a local NPR affiliate it took her
three attempts to cast her ballot in her town elections last Tuesday.


Claudia Irizarry AponteSenior Reporter
cirizarry@thecity.nyc
Claudia is a senior reporter covering labor and work for THE CITY. More
by Claudia Irizarry Aponte

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