As Election Day draws nearer, the U.S. Supreme Court is stepping in to allow at least one state to bolster election integrity. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued an order granting a stay against a lower court’s order blocking Virginia from removing an estimated 1,600 noncitizens from its voter rolls. Chief Justice John Roberts was joined by Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas in granting the stay, while Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor would have denied the stay.

Virginia’s Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) announced in August that the state had removed over 6,300 noncitizens from its voter rolls since 2022 and issued an executive order to remove a remaining 1,600 noncitizens from the voter rolls. The Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Virginia earlier this month, alleging a violation of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), namely a provision barring removal of citizens who have moved out of state from a state’s voter rolls within 90 days of an election.

Biden-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Giles issued an order halting Virginia’s voter rolls cleanse and the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently upheld that order. Virginia’s Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court on Sunday night, resulting in Wednesday’s stay of Giles’s order.

Youngkin celebrated the court’s decision, saying on Wednesday, “We are pleased by the Supreme Court’s order today. This is a victory for commonsense and election fairness.” He continued, “Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections.”

Other measures Youngkin and Virginia Republicans have implemented include “paper ballots, counting machines not connected to the internet, a strong chain of custody process, signature verification, monitored and secured drop boxes, and a ‘triple check’ vote counting process to tabulate results.” The governor added, “Virginians can cast their ballots on Election Day knowing that Virginia’s elections are fair, secure, and free from politically-motivated interference.”

Miyares also issued a statement on the court’s decision. He wrote, “This ruling ensures that — with less than a week before the elections — Virginians can vote with confidence knowing Virginians will be choosing our elected officials. I am grateful that the Supreme Court recognized the importance of this issue and issued its decision in such a short time frame.” He added, “This ruling is a win for election integrity and the rule of law.” However, Miyares also said, “While I am gratified the Court moved so quickly, I remain deeply concerned and alarmed that the Biden-Harris administration chose to execute this maneuver just 25 days before an election.”

In a statement shared with The Washington Stand, Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative and a former member of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), said, “This is a significant victory for election integrity. The Department of Justice filed this lawsuit against Virginia that misinterprets a provision of the National Voter Registration Act.”

He explained that the NVRA provision cited by the DOJ “doesn’t apply to noncitizens who never should have been eligible to register in the first place and are violating federal criminal law by registering to vote.” He continued, “States should take this action from the Supreme Court as confirmation that they can clean up their voter rolls. It should also signal to DOJ that they need to investigate and prosecute these aliens, not try to force Virginia or any other state to keep them registered in voter rolls in violation of federal law.”

The DOJ also sued Alabama to keep noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. Studies estimate that anywhere from 1.5 million to 2.7 million noncitizens may vote in the U.S. election next week. A Chinese national has been charged with perjury and voting illegally after casting a ballot in Michigan, but state officials verified that the vote will still be counted.

Earlier this year, Michigan Democrats passed a series of state laws diluting election integrity, including barring state boards of canvassers from investigating allegations of voter fraud or ballot tampering. Republican National Committee (RNC) co-chair Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of former President and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, announced that the RNC identified “thousands of duplicate ballots in Michigan,” but took action to ensure that “these duplicates were not and WILL NOT BE COUNTED.”

While the Supreme Court did nix the District Court’s order and allow Virginia to remove noncitizens from its voter rolls, legal experts anticipate that the Supreme Court will largely avoid post-election litigation, according to the Washington Times. The court rejected numerous election-related petitions and lawsuits following the contentious and controversial 2020 election, in which allegations of voter fraud, ballot harvesting, and ballot tampering abounded.