Miami-based U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz on Thursday, October 1, dismissed a federal criminal case against Chelsea Cox, a Jamaican national living in Florida who was charged last October with illegally voting in the 2020 election. Leibowitz found that the 1996 federal law criminalizing noncitizen voting violates the U.S. Constitution — apparently the first time a federal court has struck down the statute.
Leibowitz's logic is federalism: under the Constitution, only states — not Congress — can set voter qualifications. Every state requires U.S. citizenship to vote, but Cox violated Florida's requirement, and prosecuting her is Florida's job, not the Justice Department's. "Can the State of Florida prohibit and punish the exact conduct Defendant Cox allegedly engaged in here? This has already been decided elsewhere and is not addressed here: Florida can and does," he wrote.
The ruling applies only to Cox's case and does not bind other judges, though it could prove persuasive. About 45 similar federal cases are pending, with several defendants making the same constitutional argument. Cox allegedly used fraudulent documents to obtain identification, registered in 2012, and voted through 2020.
The decision lands squarely on the Trump administration's crackdown on noncitizen voting. Since returning to office in January 2025, the Justice Department has charged at least 60 people with noncitizen voting — while a Reuters analysis in July found Cox was one of just 129 people ever charged with "voting by an alien." The crackdown has become a cornerstone of Trump's push to highlight alleged election fraud ahead of November's midterm elections, with Republicans fighting to retain majorities in both houses of Congress.
Trump, who falsely claims fraud cost him the 2020 election, says stricter enforcement of documented citizenship is needed for election integrity. His critics say the highly publicized crackdown exaggerates a rare problem and could undermine confidence in election results.
The numbers tell the story: more than 158 million Americans voted in the 2020 election; 129 people charged with "voting by an alien" is not even a rounding error. Leibowitz did not find Cox's conduct lawful — he found that Congress lacked the constitutional authority to criminalize it. Florida's law remains on the books; state prosecutors are free to use it. Legal scholars say the Justice Department is almost certain to appeal, and with 45 related cases raising the same argument, the question of who gets to punish noncitizen voting may ultimately land back before the Supreme Court.