By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona Republicans scored a significant victory for election integrity at the U.S. Supreme Court this week.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its order in Mi Familia v. Adrian Fontes, overruling a panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that had struck down portions of a recently passed state law that required new voters registering with state forms to provide proof of citizenship in order to vote. The law was HB 2492, which was passed in 2022.
“Our legal battle is far from over,” said Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen. “While we’re grateful SCOTUS recognized our state’s sovereignty by allowing our laws requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in Arizona be enforced, individuals who are living here illegally are still able to register on a federal form without providing proof of citizenship. They must only attest they are lawful citizens, then they are able to vote in the presidential and congressional races, as well as by mail, thus influencing the outcome of our elections. We will continue litigating this issue in the coming months with a goal of ensuring only legal U.S. citizens are casting a ballot.”
The emergency petition to the U.S. Supreme Court from Petersen and Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma followed a mixed – and rather unprecedented – ruling at the Ninth Circuit. Last month, a panel on the court issued an order in support of the Arizona law’s requirement for proof of citizenship in state voter registrations. However, another panel on the same appeals court overturned this ruling, giving anyone in the state the ability to register to vote on a state form without first proving their citizenship.
“This is a great day for election integrity and transparency across Arizona,” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “The U.S. Supreme Court rightly realized that the Ninth Circuit had created mass chaos of the law and precedent just a few months before the November General Election, and that this mess could not have been cleaned up after the fall contests. Today, Arizona will be able to protect our elections from illegals voting thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court. We will continue to fight against efforts from liberal special interests to dismantle these commonsense and constitutional laws requiring proof of citizenship to vote in our elections in the Ninth Circuit and look forward to all of the provisions being eventually upheld!”
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley stated: “This is a major victory for election integrity that upholds a simple principle: American elections must be decided by American citizens. While Democrats have worked to undermine basic election safeguards and make it easier for non-citizens to vote, we have fought tooth and nail to preserve citizenship requirements, see the law enforced, and secure our elections. The Supreme Court has sided with the RNC, and the American people, to protect the vote in November.”
According to information provided by the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, “Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch would have granted the application in full, allowing Arizona to not only reject state forms without proof of citizenship, but also prevent Federal Only Voters from voting for President and by mail; while Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Barrett, and Jackson would have denied the application in full. Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh agreed with Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch that Arizona may reject state voter registration forms without proof of citizenship.”
Democrats were not at all jubilant about the order from the nation’s high court. The “X” account for the Arizona Senate Democrats posted, “TODAY: The US Supreme Court ruled that part of the Republican-backed voting law will apply prospectively to new registrations. Arizona Republicans have proudly touted that they have a new ultra-conservative court appointed to uphold their conspiracy-filled ideas – this is nothing but their latest blow to democracy.”
The Arizona House Democrats’ “X” account added, “Today’s 5-4 Supreme Court emergency stay limiting federal only voter registrations without proof of citizenship (beyond swearing under penalty of perjury and providing last 4 digits of SSN) could impact up to 42k Arizona voters. Who are these voters? According to VoteBeat, they are overwhelmingly young and concentrated on college campuses (typically students who register but didn’t bring a birth certificate or passport to campus), disproportionately Hispanic, 52.6% independent, 28.8% Democratic & 14.6% Republican. They also include many naturalized citizens and Indigenous Arizonans who may never have had a birth certificate. The demographic makeup of these voters and the GOP’s intense efforts to disenfranchise them are not coincidental.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
