On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court revived an Arizona voter law that requires documented proof of American citizenship for individuals to register to vote, responding to a request from Arizona Republicans and the Republican National Committee.
In a 5-4 ruling, the justices agreed to reinstate a law provision that had been blocked by a federal judge in response to legal challenges by advocacy groups and Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.
The decision comes before the November 5 presidential election, during which Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris will face GOP former President Donald Trump.
Arizona’s legislature, which Republicans control, adopted new voter registration restrictions in 2022. The law requires applicants who are submitting a federal registration form to provide proof of U.S. citizenship to vote by mail or in presidential elections in any federal election.
Voter registrants who use a state-created, separate form face tighter restrictions. State applications without proof of U.S. citizenship are rejected in their entirety, with officials who fail to do so facing a minor felony charge under the law.
The Supreme Court’s ruling revived the restriction on the state voter registration form but left intact a judicial decision blocking the provision that sought to further tighten limits on the federal form.
SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts joined fellow conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh to grant the GOP’s request in part. However, Gorsuch, Thomas, and Alito indicated they would have granted the whole request.
Liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, accompanied by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, would have denied the request entirely.
When GOP then-Governor Doug Ducey signed the legislation in March 2022, he stated the measure balanced election security with voting accessibility.
“Election integrity means counting every lawful vote and prohibiting any attempt to illegally cast a vote,” said Ducey.
Biden administration sued to block the Arizona law
The Biden administration sued in July 2022 to block the Arizona law, claiming it is superseded by a 1993 federal law titled the National Voter Registration Act. The legislation says states must register federal voters for federal elections after they submit the federal registration form, although it requires a declaration of American citizenship under penalty of perjury, but not documentary proof.
In different legal challenges, the Arizona law violated a court-approved settlement in 2018 requiring state election officials to register voters who lack documented proof of U.S. citizenship for federal elections, regardless of whether they use the state or federal form.
Arizona’s leading GOP lawmakers and the Republican National Committee intervened to defend the law.
Susan Bolton, a Phoenix-based U.S. District Judge, sided with the Biden administration and other plaintiffs in September 2023 in challenging Arizona’s requirements for proof of citizenship. Bolton blocked the state from barring federal-form applicants from voting by mail voting for president or rejecting applications on state forms for lacking citizenship documentation.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a three-judge panel that reviewed the case on its merits, declined to halt Bolton’s ruling. This prompted Arizona Republicans and the Republican National Committee to file a Supreme Court emergency filing.
Arizona’s secretary of state and attorney general, both Democrats, opposed the GOP request to the justices.
Arizona, which is predicted to be one of the most competitive states in the November presidential election, has been a hot spot in the U.S. battle over voting rights.
Arizona enacted a law in 2005 that required new voters to provide proof of citizenship, but the United States Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the state couldn’t impose that requirement on those who used a federal form to register. Since then, the state has allowed those voters to participate only in federal elections, not local or state races.
According to state data, Arizona had over 42,000 “federal only” registered voters as of July 1.
The GOP-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a similar bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in elections earlier this year. Still, it went nowhere in the Democrat-majority U.S. Senate.
