On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, partially approved a request from the Republican National Committee for Arizona to enforce rules requiring proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration.
The vote was 5-4, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett siding with the court’s liberal justices in opposition.
The voter registration law will take effect immediately, just in time for the November election.
As reported by NBC News:
In what is likely to be one of many election-related disputes to come before the court ahead of the November election, the justices allowed for one of three provisions of the state law to be enforced.
The vote was 5-4 on allowing limited enforcement of the law with conservative justices in the majority. One conservative, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined the three liberal justices in dissent. The court, in a brief order, did not explain its reasoning.
Three conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — said they would have allowed all three provisions to be enforced.
More than 40,000 people have registered to vote in federal elections in Arizona without providing proof of citizenship, although state officials say most are inactive voters, and only a small number will likely be affected.
In the 2020 election, President Joe Biden beat former President Donald Trump in Arizona by just over 10,000 votes.
The provision the court allowed the state to enforce would require officials to turn away attempts to register to vote using the state’s own registration form if the person has no documentary proof of citizenship.
But the court kept on hold separate provisions that would prevent people without proof of citizenship from voting in presidential elections or by mail if they registered to vote using a different, federal registration form.
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