A New York City law that would allow noncitizens to vote in local elections was deemed unconstitutional by a state appeals court on Wednesday.

The law would have allowed roughly 800,000 green card holders and individuals with federal work authorization living in the Big Apple to vote in the city’s elections, including in mayoral and City Council elections. Democratic and Republican elected officials have been in a drawn-out legal battle over the law, and the court’s ruling Wednesday hands Democrats a defeat.

“We determine that this local law was enacted in violation of the New York State Constitution and Municipal Home Rule Law, and thus, must be declared null and void,” Paul Wooten, associate justice of the Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department in New York, wrote in the Wednesday ruling. The court’s 3-1 ruling determined that the state’s constitution clause that reads........

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