While the country was busy chasing Joe Biden around looking for classified documents last month, Vermont was quietly up to a few antics of its own.
On Friday, Jan. 20, the Vermont Supreme Court upheld a statute authorizing noncitizens who are legal U.S. residents in Montpelier, Vermont to vote in local elections. One would think this ruling would completely violate state laws, but leave it to Vermont, home to socialist Bernie Sanders, to actually make it one of them.
This ruling affirmed a lower court’s decision that found the law complies with the state constitution. The Montpelier statute at issue states that “any person may register to vote in Montpelier City elections who on election day is a citizen of the United States or a legal resident of the United States,” specifically defining a “legal resident” as someone “who resides in the United States on a permanent or indefinite basis in compliance with federal immigration laws.”
According to Democracy Docket, last month’s decision stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee, the Vermont Republican Party, and voters challenging the statute — which was passed as a charter amendment by voters in 2018 and approved for implementation by the Vermont General Assembly in 2021 after it overrode the governor’s veto — for violating the Vermont Constitution.
In April 2022, a trial court rejected the Republican plaintiffs’ argument that the challenged statute violates the state constitution and dismissed the lawsuit. The Republicans appealed this decision to the Vermont Supreme Court, which affirmed the trial court’s decision in its Jan. 20 ruling, meaning that Montpelier’s noncitizen voting statute remains in place.
This historic ruling comes as many other municipalities across the country are passing amendments and enacting laws to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. These reforms have engendered backlash from Republicans and conservative groups, sometimes in the form of lawsuits. For instance, Republicans have mounted legal challenges to New York City’s law that allows noncitizens to vote in municipal elections, resulting in a court decision to block the law for violating the state constitution. This decision was appealed and litigation over the law remains ongoing.