Judge blocks Florida’s citizenship requirement for voter registration, but dismisses other challenges

A federal Judge has struck down part of Florida’s controversial 2023 elections law, ruling that a provision barring noncitizens from handling voter registration applications is unconstitutional, but leaving intact most of the law’s other restrictions on third-party voter registration organizations.

In a 55-page order , U.S. District Judge Mark Walker found that the citizenship requirement in SB 7050 , which GOP lawmakers pushed to passage in April 2023, violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause because it is “facially discriminatory with respect to alienage.”

The decision blocks Florida from enforcing the provision against Humberto Orjuela Prieto, a Colombian-born permanent resident who works as a canvasser, and his employer, Latino civil rights and advocacy nonprof