New York state’s top court put an end Thursday to New York City’s effort to empower noncitizens to vote in municipal elections.

The Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court ruling that had declared unconstitutional the city’s bid to allow noncitizens to vote.

The ruling caps a protracted battle over who is permitted to vote in New York City’s municipal elections and puts an end, for now, to the fight to enfranchise more than 800,000 noncitizens who were legally living, working or going to school in the five boroughs.