Justice Department urges Supreme Court to keep parts of Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship voter law on hold
By Tierney Sneed, CNN
(CNN) — The Biden administration told the Supreme Court on Friday that parts of an Arizona proof-of-citizenship voter law should remain on hold for the coming election.
The high court has been asked to intervene in a dispute over the election rules of the battleground state, with a case that hits on a political flashpoint of the 2024 campaign season.
In a court filing, US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said that “judicial intervention at this stage would undermine the orderly administration of the election, risking the disfranchisement of thousands of voters who have already registered to vote using the federal form.”
The contention was backed by Arizona’s Democratic state officials who said in their own court filings that a court intervention at this time would be “destabilizing.”
The Biden administration, as well as civil rights groups who have also sued over the 2022 law, argues that it runs afoul of the National Voter Registration Act by requiring that individuals using the federal registration form show documentary proof of citizenship in order to vote in the presidential election and to use mail balloting in the state.
The Supreme Court was asked by the Republican National Committee and state GOP lawmakers last week to reinstate the requirement for the coming election, after a trial judge struck it down.
The civil rights groups successfully challenged another provision of the law that mandates documentary proof of citizenship for individuals using the state voter registration form, while eliminating previous fail-safes for voter registrations lacking those documents.
The groups argued the law violates a 2018 consent decree stemming from a separate lawsuit. Under the consent decree, county officials use state DMV records to confirm the citizenship status of voters who had not provided proof-of-citizenship, but the 2022 measure would end that practice for individuals who register using the state registration form.
The civil rights groups, in a filing Friday joined by the Democratic National Committee and the state Democratic party, told the Supreme Court that allowing that that aspect of the law to go into effect would disenfranchise voters.
If the Supreme Court grants the GOP request, the Democrats and groups wrote, “voters would see their applications rejected solely based on which paper they use to register.”
Republicans have been eager to make the supposed threat of non-citizen voting front and center of the 2024 election campaign. The complicated way that Arizona crafted its proof-of-citizenship law is in part because of a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that limited when those documents could be required to vote. The Supreme Court, pointing to the NVRA, said then that states cannot require proof-of-citizenship documents in federal elections for registrants using the federal form if the form itself does not include the mandate.
Arizona has already set up a bifurcated system for federal vs. state elections, as the 2013 Supreme Court precedent did not preclude proof-of-citizenship requirements for voters in non-federal elections.
Republicans claim that the requirement can be imposed in presidential elections because only states – and not Congress – have the power to run voter registration in those elections. The Biden administration called that argument “incorrect” in Friday’s filing, while also critiquing the Republican rationale for imposing the requirement on vote by mail.
Republicans have asked the high court to act quickly in the case, citing an August 22 deadline elections officials have given for resolving disputes over ballot initiatives.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, said in his own filing Friday that any change to the status quo at this time would create “undue hardship” for him and county election administrators, while confusing voters.
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