A federal judge in Miami will hear oral arguments this week on a legal theory that five people around the country are betting will spring them from noncitizen voting charges. Their pitch: The statute that made their vote a federal crime is unconstitutional. Congress, they argue, never had the authority to touch this. Only the states do.

In my courtroom experience, when a defendant stops arguing the facts and starts arguing jurisdiction, it’s usually because the facts are a lost cause. That’s what’s happening here, and the public deserves to understand exactly what’s at stake before a handful of judges decide it quietly.