A federal appeals court ruled Sunday that a lower court was correct in reinstating some 1,600 people. Virginia voters whose citizenship status is questionable.

The decision came after immigrants and women’s rights groups sued the state and its board of elections after Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order in August directing state officials to identify non-citizens, who had two weeks to contest their disqualification before being excluded from the electoral rolls. rolled.

Youngkin’s lawyers argued that the law applies to genuine voters and that the exclusion of non-citizens is not covered. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said the state was mixing different parts of the law.

YOUNGKIN COMMITS TO APPEAL “TO SCOTUS” AFTER US JUDGE ORDERED 1,600 VOTERS RETURN TO BALLOTS

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin speaks during the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority policy conference at the Washington Hilton June 22, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

“This is not how the courts interpret the laws,” the appeals court said in its ruling.

On Sunday, he promised to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It’s common sense: non-citizens should not appear on our electoral rolls,” he wrote on X.

“THANKS @JasonMiyaresVA for immediately filing an emergency appeal with the United States Supreme Court against the order directing Virginia to re-register more than 1,500 people who identified themselves as non-citizens as voters,” the governor said to Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.

On Friday, U.S. Judge Patricia Giles issued a preliminary injunction to reinstate all voters who had been removed from the state’s voter rolls in the past 90 days. The judge ruled that the expulsions had been “systematic,” not individualized, and therefore constituted a violation of federal law.

His decision came after the Justice Department filed a complaint against the State of Virginia, the Virginia State Board of Elections and the Virginia Commissioner of Elections on October 11, claiming that by removing voters from the rolls too close to the November 5 general election, the state had violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

YOUNGKIN RESPONDS TO DOJ’S LAWSUIT FOR “COMMON SENSE” LAW THAT EXTRACTS NON-CITIZENS FROM THE VOTER ROLL

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is located in Alexandria, Virginia. (Bonnie Cash/Getty Images)

“Let’s be clear about what just happened: Just eleven days before a presidential election, a federal judge ordered Virginia to re-register more than 1,500 people, who identified as non-citizens, on the voter rolls.” Youngkin said in a press release Friday.

“Almost all of these people had already presented immigration documents confirming their non-citizen status, a fact recently verified by federal authorities,” he added.

Voters will fill out their ballots on Election Day in 2023.

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If the case were to go to the High Court, it would come within days of the election.