The Unconstitutionality of the Federal Ban on Noncitizen Voting and Congressionally Imposed Voter Qualifications

Abstract

Congress strikes at the core of state sovereignty when it disenfranchises voters. Yet demands for national disenfranchisement laws have become pervasive since the 2016 election, and Congress has a ready model: a federal statute prohibiting noncitizens from voting in federal elections. Despite upending centuries of state control over voter qualifications, this statute remains unchallenged in court and unexamined in academia; its constitutionality has been assumed. This Article challenges this assumption, arguing that the federal ban on noncitizen voting—along with every other voter qualification Congress imposes—unconstitutionally infringes state sovereignty.