NY Highest Court Strikes Down NY City's Illegal Alien Voting Law

Today, New York State’s highest appellate court sustained a lower court’s invalidation of a law the New York City Council had passed giving the right to vote in city elections to aliens. The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) had filed briefs in this case urging that result.

Today, the court held that provisions in the New York Constitution restrict the right to vote in any election in the state to U.S. citizens. Accordingly, the court upheld the trial court’s invalidation of the law.

“We applaud the court for its decision, and are pleased this law remains null and void,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “Laws such as this are an attack on the very idea of American nationhood. The sovereign of this democratic nation is the people, U.S. citizens. When their power is eroded, our nation begins to lose its very independence. Despite today’s victory, this is not the end of activists’ attempts to extend the vote to aliens, even in federal elections, and we continue this critical fight on other fronts.”

The case is Fossella v. Adams, No. 15 (N.Y. Court of Appeals)...