The laws require that people who register to vote in Arizona provide ’satisfactory’ proof of citizenship or residency to be eligible to vote.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is asking on the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate an Arizona law requiring voters to prove their U.S. citizenship for the upcoming presidential election.
In an application for emergency relief filed on Aug. 8, the RNC asked Justice Elena Kagan to block a previous lower-court ruling that put the state law on hold.
The Committee centered much of its filing around how the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handled the matter.
The laws at the center of the debate are H.B. 2492 and H.B. 2243—collectively known as the “Voting Laws”—which were passed by the Arizona Legislature in 2022.
Among other things, they require that people who register to vote in Arizona using a state form provide “satisfactory” proof of citizenship or residency, such as a birth certificate, to be eligible to vote.
The laws also require individuals to include their state or country of birth and mandate that counties conduct citizenship checks and remove non-citizens from the rolls.
Although a district judge partially blocked the law in 2023 after ruling that federal laws, not state, take precedence when it comes to proof of citizenship for voters, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit later stayed the injunction.
In July, another panel of judges granted a request from Republicans to reinstate some but not all parts of the laws.
However, the same panel turned down the RNC’s bid to require election officials to check records from the Social Security Administration and other databases to ensure individuals who do not provide proof of citizenship are actually citizens.
In its Aug. 8 filing, the RNC said the Ninth Circuit’s reversal violates what’s known as the Purcell principle, which bars federal courts from enjoining the enforcement of state election laws with an election impending.
“The principle recognizes the important interests state officials have in protecting their elections and avoiding voter confusion,” the RNC wrote. “But the Ninth Circuit turned this principle against the enforcement of state election-integrity laws.”
