The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a Republican-led bid to revive voter restrictions in Arizona that would stiffen proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registrants and purge state voter rolls of alleged non-US citizens.
Background
In 2022, Arizona’s Republican-controlled legislature adopted new restrictions requiring applicants who use a state-issued voter registration form to show documented proof of US citizenship. Under the state measure, failing to produce such documentation would prevent someone from being registered to vote in federal or state elections.
Citizenship proof could include a passport or birth certificate or other types of documents, under the measure. Another Arizona measure required election officials to regularly purge from state voter rolls registrants whose American citizenship could not be confirmed.
Legal Challenge
The administration of Democratic former President Joe Biden sued to block the Arizona restrictions in 2022, arguing the measure is superseded by a 1993 federal law called the National Voter Registration Act. That federal law requires registrants for US elections to check a box declaring their American citizenship under penalty of perjury, but not show documentary proof of citizenship.
A separate legal challenge argued that the Arizona law violated a 2018 court-approved settlement requiring state election officials to register voters who lack documented proof of US citizenship for federal elections.
Supreme Court Decision
The Supreme Court in 2024 partly granted a request from Arizona Republicans to revive the voter registration restriction. The court is expected to hear arguments in the case during its next term, which begins in October.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
