Judge Leibowitz’s decision emphasized state jurisdiction over voter eligibility and limited federal action.
Published October 2, 2026
A federal judge has ruled that a law criminalizing voting by noncitizens is unconstitutional, a setback for President Donald Trump’s administration as it cracks down on allegations of election fraud ahead of November’s midterm elections.
U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz in Miami on Thursday dismissed a federal lawsuit against Jamaican-born Florida resident Chelsea Cox, who was charged in October 2025 with illegally voting in the 2020 presidential election.
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Leibowitz, who was appointed to the bench by former Democratic President Joe Biden, found that under the U.S. Constitution, only individual states, not the U.S. Congress, have the power to set eligibility for voters.
Since every state already requires U.S. citizenship to vote, it is up to Florida, not the Justice Department, to prosecute Cox for violating that rule, he wrote. “Florida can and is doing it,” he wrote, noting that the state already has its own laws governing the conduct Cox is accused of.
The ruling applies only to Cox’s case and is not binding on other judges, but there are about 45 similar cases pending across the country. At least four other defendants have filed similar constitutional challenges.
According to court filings, Cox entered the United States as a tourist in 1999, overstayed his visa, then used a fraudulent birth certificate from the U.S. Virgin Islands, a U.S. territory in the Caribbean, to obtain a Florida driver’s license and register to vote in 2012.
President Trump has already falsely claimed that illegal and rare non-referendum votes cost him the 2020 election, and that the votes were cast as part of a broader effort by Democrats to weaken Republican support.
The Justice Department has indicted at least 60 people on similar charges since Trump returned to office in January 2025.
Of the 129 people charged with “foreign voting” since 2021, none were charged with conspiring to sway elections, supporting candidates, or receiving voting fees, according to Reuters. Most were found to be legal permanent residents who had registered by mistake or on the wrong advice of election officials or government officials.
Ms Cox’s lawyer, Bruce Oudolf, welcomed the ruling and said he hoped authorities would not try to deport her now because of her failing health.
