New York City Can’t Allow Noncitizens to Vote, Top State Court Rules

A New York City law that would have allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections was declared unconstitutional on Thursday by the state’s highest court, which overwhelmingly upheld a lower-court ruling.

The law, which was passed in 2021 but never went into effect, would have given the city’s roughly 800,000 legal permanent residents more of a say in the governance of their home.

Writing for the 6-1 majority, Rowan D. Wilson, chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, concluded that the State Constitution made citizenship a condition of voting. Lawyers for the City of New York and an immigrant civil rights group, which had appealed the lower-court rulings, had argued that the State Constitution was more expansive in who had the right to vote.

“It is plain from the language and restrictions contained in Article II that ‘citizen’ is not meant as a floor, but as a condition of voter eligibility: The franchise extends only to citizens whose right to vote is established by proper proofs and who vote by ballot,” Judge Wilson wrote, referencing the portion of the Constitution that describes voting rules.

“The highest court in New York State has made its decision, and we respect the court’s ruling,” Kayla Mamelak Altus, a spokeswoman for Mayor Eric Adams, said.

The voting measure, known as Local Law 11, was passed by the City Council toward the end of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s second and last term. Mr. de Blasio and his successor, Mr. Adams, questioned the Council’s constitutional authority to pass the measure, but neither chose to sign or veto it — allowing it to become law.