WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court Thursday rejected a Republican effort that could have prevented more than 41,000 Arizona voters from casting their ballots for president in the state that Democratic President Joe Biden won by fewer than 11,000 votes four years ago.
But in a 5-4 order, the Supreme Court allowed some enforcement of rules that ban people from voting if they don’t provide proof of citizenship when registering.
The justices acted on an emergency appeal filed by state and national Republicans seeking to give the ballot measures full effect Introduced 2022 after Biden’s narrow victory over Republican Donald Trump.
The court did not explain its reasoning in a brief decision. Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch would have allowed the law to be fully upheld, while Justice Amy Coney Barrett would have joined the court’s three liberals in rejecting the push entirely, it said command.
The legal battle will continue in lower courts.
National and state Republicans had asked the Supreme Court to become involved in a legal battle over voter registration restrictions Republicans enacted in Arizona in 2022 after Biden’s ruling. meager victory in the state in 2020.
The court’s action came after a lower court blocked a requirement calling for voter registration forms to be rejected if they are not accompanied by documents proving U.S. citizenship. A second measure, also not in effect, would have banned voting in presidential elections or by mail if registrants do not prove they are U.S. citizens. Federal law requires voters to swear that they are U.S. citizens under penalty of perjury, but does not require proof of citizenship to vote in person in federal elections or to vote by mail.
An appeals panel of three Trump appointees initially blocked the lower court’s ruling in part and allowed enforcement of a provision affecting voter registration forms. But another appeals panel voted 2-1 to put both provisions on hold, allowing two Bill Clinton appointees to allow voter registration to proceed due to the dissent of a Trump appointee.
The measures were passed on a party-line vote and signed by the then government. Doug Ducey, a Republican, amid a wave of proposals Republicans introduced across the country after Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump, including in Arizona.
For state and local elections, voters must provide proof of citizenship when registering or submitting it to the state. Because that is not a requirement for federal elections for Congress or president, tens of thousands of voters who have not provided proof of citizenship are only registered for federal elections.
As of August 9, 41,352 of those voters were registered in Arizona, according to Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.
Fontes warned in a lawsuit that an order in favor of the state and national Republicans so close to the November elections “will cause chaos and confusion.”
Voters most affected include military personnel, students and Native Americans, Fontes said. About 27% of those voters are registered Democrats and 15% are Republicans. More than half, 54%, are registered independents, according to state data.
Voting rights groups and the The Biden administration had filed a lawsuit about the laws of Arizona.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach led Republican attorneys general in 24 states in supporting the restrictions, saying the “case threatens to continue chipping away at Arizona’s authority to secure its own elections.”
Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma, who joined Senate President Warren Petersen in asking the court to take up the issue, said in a statement that the order was “a step in the right direction to ensure that all of our elections to demand citizenship.” Toma and Peterson are both Republicans.
Voters who vote only at the federal level have been the subject of political battles since the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that Arizona cannot require documentary proof of citizenship from people to vote in national elections. The state responded by creating two classes of voters: those who can vote in all races, and those who can vote only in federal elections.
One of the new laws aimed to further divide voters, by allowing voting in congressional elections without proof of citizenship, but denying the vote in presidential elections.
The 2022 law has drawn fierce opposition from voting rights advocates, who described the statute as an attempt to get the issue back before the now more conservative Supreme Court.
Supporters say the measure is about eliminating opportunities for fraud. There is no evidence that the existence of federal-only voters has allowed noncitizens to vote illegally, but Republican skeptics have nevertheless worked aggressively to crack down on federal-only voting.
The Legislature’s own lawyers had said much of the measure was unconstitutional, directly contradicted the Supreme Court’s earlier decision and likely to be thrown out by the court.
Billeaud reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this story.