2026年10月2日 美国东部时间晚上7:05 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
作者：雅各布·罗森 司法部记者
这一判决可能打击特朗普政府指控非公民在美国选举中投票的努力。一名法官驳回了针对一名被指控非法投票的牙买加国民的联邦案件，认定其被控依据的法律违宪。
总部位于迈阿密的美国地区法官戴维·S·莱博维茨周四在一份31页的判决书中裁定，必须驳回针对切尔西·考克斯的刑事诉讼。考克斯于2025年10月被指控在2020年非法投票，犯下轻罪。他表示，一项数十年历史的联邦法律——《美国法典》第18编第611条，禁止非美国公民在联邦选举中投票——违宪。
莱博维茨写道，根据美国宪法，只有各州有权设定选民资格，国会无权这么做。该法官表示，佛罗里达州的州检察官可以依据州法律起诉考克斯的非法投票行为，而非联邦政府。
这一判决仅适用于考克斯一案，似乎是法院首次认定该法规违宪。但它可能削弱司法部追查非公民投票行为的力度。多数选举专家认为非公民投票现象罕见，但特朗普总统长期声称该现象普遍存在，不过从未提供证据。
莱博维茨作出判决后不久，司法部便提出上诉。司法部发言人未立即回应置评请求。
此次判决涉及的联邦法律规定，非公民投票属于轻罪。该法律不适用于另一项禁止人们谎称公民身份以投票的法律，近几个月来司法部也曾利用该法律追责。
“这是一起不同寻常的刑事案件，其依据是一部已有40年历史的联邦法规，即《美国法典》第18编第611条，该条禁止非美国公民在联邦选举中投票。直到不久前，没有任何联邦法院曾就该法规提出过以下问题：国会是否有宪法权限制定该法规？仅这一点本身就非同寻常，”莱博维茨写道。
这位由拜登任命的法官继而表示，司法部“为该法规合宪性提出的主要辩护仅援引了一个最高法院判例，而这个判例非常、非常站不住脚”。
“那为什么政府要打出如此薄弱的一张牌？因为这已是它所能拿出的最好牌了，”他说。“为什么会这样？因为宪法的文本、结构和最初的公众含义都表明，国会并无宪法权力制定这项法规。”
周五晚间的电话通话中，考克斯的律师布鲁斯·乌多尔夫表示，他的当事人对莱博维茨的判决“感到欣慰”，并称这对她来说是“巨大的解脱”。乌多尔夫说，考克斯最近接受了一次医疗手术，他正与政府合作，以确定该案的下一步进展，以及特朗普政府是否会将她驱逐出境。
在法庭文件中，联邦检察官指控考克斯20多年前逾期滞留美国旅游签证，并通过提交伪造的美属维尔京群岛出生证明获得佛罗里达州驾照。他们声称，考克斯从2012年开始在多场联邦选举中投票，2020年大选的投票行为导致了去年的指控。
考克斯的律师今年早些时候请求法院驳回指控，称用于起诉她的法律“超出了国会的权限，侵犯了保留给各州的权力”。
联邦检察官进行了反驳，辩称宪法“规定联邦政府在监督此类选举方面发挥重要作用”。
“无论是规范联邦选举的方式，还是维护联邦公民身份的独特特权，美国无疑有权将非公民排除在联邦选举的投票之外，”司法部律师在文件中写道。
为协助他解决这一问题，莱博维茨邀请了一位保守派法律重量级人物提供分析意见：保罗·克莱门特，他曾在乔治·W·布什政府期间担任副检察长，是美国最知名的最高法院诉讼律师之一。
在夏季提交的一份法庭之友意见书中，克莱门特认定国会很可能“在制定第611条时逾越了宪法界限”。他指出，虽然目前没有州允许非公民在联邦选举中投票，但各州曾有过允许该做法的历史。
克莱门特写道：“决定选民资格的是各州，而非联邦政府。”
Judge says federal law banning noncitizen voting is unconstitutional
October 2, 2026 7:05 PM EDT / CBS News
By Jacob Rosen Justice Department Reporter
In a possible blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to charge noncitizens with voting in U.S. elections, a judge has dismissed a federal case against a Jamaican national accused of illegally voting, finding the law she was charged under is unconstitutional.
Miami-based U.S. District Judge David S. Leibowitz ruled Thursday in a 31-page order that the criminal case against Chelsea Cox, who was charged in October 2025 with a misdemeanor for illegally voting in 2020, must be dismissed. He said a decades-old federal law that prohibits a non-U.S. citizen from voting in a federal election, 18 U.S.C. § 611, is unconstitutional.
Under the U.S. Constitution, Leibowitz wrote, only states can set voter qualifications, not Congress. The judge said state prosecutors in Florida could prosecute Cox under state law for unlawfully voting, not the federal government.
The decision applies only to Cox and appears to be the first time a court has deemed the statute unconstitutional. But it could dent the Justice Department’s push to pursue noncitizen voting, a practice that most elections experts say is rare but that President Trump has long alleged — without evidence — is common.
Shortly after Leibowitz’s decision, the Justice Department moved to appeal the ruling. A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decision involved a federal law that makes it a misdemeanor for noncitizens to vote. It does not cover a separate law barring people from making false claims of citizenship in order to vote, another tool used by the Justice Department in recent months.
“This is an unusual criminal case. It rests upon a forty-year-old federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 611, that prohibits the act of voting in a federal election by a non-U.S. citizen. Until very recently, no federal court has been presented with the following question about that statute: Did Congress have Constitutional authority to enact it? That’s unusual, all by itself,” Leibowitz wrote.
The Biden-appointed judge went on to say the Justice Department’s “principal defense of the statute’s constitutionality invokes a single Supreme Court case that is very, very weak.”
“So why does the Government lead with such a weak hand? Because it’s the best hand it can play,” he said. “And why is that? Because the text, structure, and original public meaning of the Constitution show that Congress does not have the constitutional power to enact this statute.”
In a phone conversation Friday night, Cox’s attorney Bruce Udolf said his client is “gratified” by Leibowitz’s ruling and said it was a “huge relief to her.” Udolf said Cox recently underwent a medical procedure, and he is working with the government to determine the next steps in the case and whether the Trump administration moves to deport her.
In court papers, federal prosecutors accused Cox of overstaying a U.S. tourist visa more than 20 years ago and obtaining a Florida driver’s license by presenting a fraudulent U.S. Virgin Islands birth certificate. They alleged she cast ballots in several federal elections starting in 2012, with a vote in the 2020 general election leading to last year’s charges.
Cox’s lawyers asked the court to dismiss the charges earlier this year, arguing the law used to charge her “exceeds Congress’s authority and intrudes on a power reserved to the States.”
Federal prosecutors pushed back, arguing the Constitution “provides that the federal government play a significant role in overseeing such elections.”
“Whether it is to regulate the manner of federal elections or to preserve a distinct privilege of federal citizenship, surely the United States has the right to exclude non-citizens from voting in federal elections,” attorneys for the Justice Department wrote.
To help him resolve the issue, Leibowitz asked a conservative legal heavyweight to offer his analysis: Paul Clement, who served as solicitor general during the George W. Bush administration and is one of the country’s best-known Supreme Court litigators.
In an amicus brief filed over the summer, Clement found that Congress likely “overstepped constitutional bounds in enacting §611.” He noted that, while no state currently allows noncitizens to vote in federal elections, there is some history of states allowing the practice.
Clement wrote that “states, not the federal government, determine voter qualifications.”
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