Voters head into the polling place at the Cleveland Park Public Library on November 8, 2022 in Washington, DC. A law passed in 2022 permits noncitizen residents to vote in D.C. local elections. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
The Local Resident Voting Rights Act, passed by the D.C. Council in October 2022, states that if a noncitizen is otherwise qualified to vote, they can do so in local elections so long as they have resided in Washington, D.C., for at least 30 days. It also permits noncitizen residents to run for D.C. government offices and serve on the city's Board of Elections, according to court documents.
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The law proved highly controversial and prompted an unsuccessful effort in Congress to overturn it. The IRLI lawsuit claimed that by permitting noncitizens to vote, the law "dilutes the vote of every U.S. citizen voter in the District."
"Because it does so, the D.C. Noncitizen Voting Act is subject to review under both the equal protection and the substantive due process components of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution," the legal group argued.
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A voter casts a ballot on Election Day at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. A federal judge tossed the lawsuit against D.C.'s nonresident voting law, ruling that plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
"They may object as a matter of policy to the fact that immigrants get to vote at all, but their votes will not receive less weight or be treated differently than noncitizens' votes; they are not losing representation in any legislative body; nor have citizens as a group been discriminatorily gerrymandered, ‘packed' or ‘cracked’ to divide, concentrate, or devalue their votes," the judge continued.
"At bottom, they are simply raising a generalized grievance which is insufficient to confer standing."
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The Immigration Reform Law Institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The D.C. Board of Elections declined to comment.
New York City had passed a similar bill that also had a 30-day requirement in December 2021. That bill quickly faced a legal challenge, and in June 2022 a New York judge ruled that it was illegal, violating the state's constitution. A state appeals court upheld that decision in January.
Fox News Digital's Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
Chris Pandolfo is a writer for Fox News Digital. Send tips to chris.pandolfo@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.
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