A group dedicated to voting integrity efforts sued Wednesday to block New York City’s new law allowing noncitizens to vote, saying it will illegally dilute Black residents’ political power.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation sued on behalf of four Black residents, saying the city council adopted the noncitizen voting law despite warnings that Black voters could be hurt.
PILF, run by former Justice Department voting rights specialist J. Christian Adams, pointed to several instances during debate over the legislation where backers explicitly said the measure was about racial voting power.
One council member griped about “white men’s power,” while another, in Spanish, said the point of the legislation was to increase the political power of Asians and Hispanics, PILF said.
“The 15th Amendment prohibits any race-based voting restrictions. Legislators made statements that this was about race. This law violates the Constitution,” Mr. Adams said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
The complaint was filed in state court in Staten Island.
Mr. Adams had teased the lawsuit in a Washington Times story last month.
The Times has reached out to New York’s Law Department for comment on the new complaint.
New York’s new law allows noncitizens who have lawful permanent presence in the U.S., or who have been approved for work permits, to cast ballots in elections on city matters. That would include immigrants who are in the country illegally and under temporary protections such as the DACA program, Temporary Protected Status or even applications for victim’s visas or asylum.
The city figures perhaps 800,000 residents could be eligible.
Noncitizens are barred by federal law from participating in federal elections.
In debating the bill last year Council Member Laurie Cumbo warned colleagues they needed to learn more about its effects on Black residents.
“This particular legislation is going to shift the power dynamics in New York City in a major way, and we do not have the numbers or the information to know how that is going to impact African American communities,” she said.
She complained, in particular, that many more Latino voters than Black voters backed President Trump in elections.
Her requests to delay the bill for more study were blocked, PILF says.
According to the lawsuit, voting in New York is already deeply polarized along racial lines, and adding hundreds of thousands of new foreign citizens to the pool — most of them Asian or Hispanic — will give Black voters less of a say.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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