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.
After going into effect, the law — which allowed green card holders or those who have the right to work in the United States to vote in local elections so long as they had lived in New York City for 30 days — was quickly challenged in court by a group of Republican Party leaders. They characterized the move as an example of the misplaced priorities of the party leading the city and state, and used it as a campaign cudgel against Democrats.
The strategy placed the group in line with Republicans across the country who have been using legal and legislative methods to make voting harder. As a result, voter identification laws and the purging of voter registration lists have become much more common.
In 2022, New York’s Supreme Court struck down Local Law 11, reasoning that such a change would require a state referendum. During oral arguments in this case earlier this year, the Court of Appeals justices wrestled with this idea, peppering the lawyers from both sides with questions about whether the law constituted a change in the method by which people vote.
But the majority decision rested largely on the constitutional requirement that being a citizen was a prerequisite to vote.
In her dissenting opinion, Judge Jenny Rivera said that Local Law 11 provided “a means for this significant part of the city’s population to have a voice in their government.” But she concluded that its proponents needed to bring the proposed change to the voters.
“The Constitution specifically authorizes municipal self-governance, and so the city could exercise this power to enact Local Law 11 — but only by referendum,” Judge Rivera wrote.
Cesar Ruiz, an associate counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF who argued the appellate case, said in a statement that the justices’ ruling was “a terrible setback for our immigrant communities who contribute so much to the well-being of the city.”
“Sadly, this decision aligns with the desires of those in this country who at this moment are persecuting immigrants and want to erase their influence and presence in our society and reinforces systemic barriers that actively strip immigrants of opportunities for representation, protection and inclusion,” he added.
On Thursday, many Republicans were taking a victory lap, with Rob Ortt, the Republican minority leader in the State Senate, saying: “Even the stacked Court of Appeals cannot deny the fact that the sacred right to vote is one that belongs to the American citizen only.”
Vito J. Fossella, the Staten Island borough president, said that the voting law exemplified how some Democratic leaders were out of step with mainstream New Yorkers.
“There are policies and decisions that are being made by some of the people in power at the city and state that really go over the line for people who might be middle of the road,” said Mr. Fossella, a Republican and a plaintiff in the case.
“The ruling really is just a validation of what we have maintained since Day 1, which is that the New York State Constitution is crystal clear on who can and cannot vote.”