Federal Court Dismisses Lawsuit Challenging Proof of Citizenship Check Laws, Risking Disenfranchisement of Thousands of Eligible Voters
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10, 2026
CONTACT:
Zindy Marquez
Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
zmarquez@clccrul.org
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
press@lawyerscommittee.org
Federal Court Dismisses Lawsuit Challenging Proof of Citizenship Check Laws, Risking Disenfranchisement of Thousands of Eligible Voters Ahead of November Midterm Elections
INDIANA (September 9, 2026) — A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by four nonpartisan organizations – League of Women Voters of Indiana, Common Cause Indiana, Hoosier Asian American Power, and Exodus Refugee Immigration – seeking to halt enforcement of Indiana laws that unlawfully target naturalized and derived U.S. citizens. These laws threaten to disenfranchise eligible voters, violating the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The court’s order dismisses the case on standing grounds, a jurisdictional issue, but did not rule on whether the laws challenged by the plaintiffs are themselves legal. The court’s order leaves the door open for organizations to refile, but the dismissal denies the opportunity to obtain preliminary relief prior to the upcoming election. Thousands of eligible Indiana voters are now at risk of being wrongly removed from the voter rolls in the November midterm election because of these unlawful citizenship check laws.
The nonpartisan organizations are represented by Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Daniel Bowman and William Groth of Bowman Legal Services, LLC.
“We are deeply disappointed in the court’s ruling today. Without relief from the court, eligible voters, specifically naturalized and derived U.S. citizens, will be forced to overcome additional hurdles to prove their citizenship simply to remain registered to vote. Indiana’s new documentary proof of citizenship requirements have already misidentified hundreds of eligible U.S. citizens as potential noncitizens, with many more likely to be misidentified, putting their right to vote in jeopardy,” said Ami Gandhi, Director of the Midwest Voting Rights Program with Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. “We remain firm in our belief that these laws unfairly target naturalized citizens when individuals born as citizens would never need to follow these same requirements. Federal law and state law already prohibit noncitizens from voting and every voter already affirms their citizenship on penalty of perjury when registering. We will continue to work with our clients and explore the best legal pathway forward that will protect all eligible voters before the November midterm election.”
“Despite this setback, we will continue to advocate for fair and equal voting rights for the immigrant and refugee Hoosiers we serve,” said Cole Varga, CEO of Exodus Refugee Immigration.
"Making thousands of Hoosiers who are U.S. citizens jump through extra hoops to vote because they are naturalized will result in many of those Hoosiers refusing to vote," said Julia Vaughn, Executive Director of Common Cause Indiana. "As a state that struggles with low turnout, we hope the court will eventually see the error of this law, and that for future elections these citizens do not have a different set of voting rules."
“Democracy works best when all eligible voters have the opportunity to make their voices heard,” said Linda Hanson, President of the League of Women Voters of Indiana. “This ruling is disappointing. It places hurdles in the way of naturalized and derived citizens that never confront U.S. born citizens, and it prevents them from fully participating in our democracy. We will continue to advocate for an end to these discriminatory laws.”
“These laws treat naturalized citizen voters unfairly, making it more difficult for many in our community to vote,” said Melissa Borja, Chair of Hoosier Asian American Power. “Hoosiers who are naturalized citizens deserve to participate in our elections as freely as others. While this ruling is a disappointment, we remain steadfast in our commitment to helping our community vote and advocating for laws that build a healthy democracy.”
“These laws are discriminatory and risk disenfranchising hundreds, if not thousands, of eligible voters in the November elections, in violation of federal law,” said Ryan Snow, Counsel with the Voting Rights Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “The facts show clearly that these laws routinely misidentify eligible new citizens as potential noncitizens and create new barriers to voting for them that no U.S.-born citizen will ever be subjected to. We will continue to fight alongside our clients to ensure that every eligible Indiana voter is able to cast a ballot free from such discriminatory burdens."
“Indiana should be eliminating barriers to participation – not creating them. We are disappointed in this decision that will risk the removal of many eligible Hoosiers from the rolls ahead of the November election,” said William Groth of Bowman Legal Services, LLC. “We will explore all possible paths forward with our clients to ensure that Indiana voters can safely and securely cast their ballots.”
The nonpartisan organizations are exploring their options for a pathway forward to address the harms resulting from these laws.
Read the court’s ruling here.
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