WASHINGTON—The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) has filed a brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a set of consolidated lawsuits brought by the federal government, the Democratic National Committee, and anti-borders activists. The suits aim to take down an Arizona law requiring state election officials to verify the U.S. citizenship of those applying to vote in federal elections in the state.
Under a federal law, states have to “accept and use” a particular federal-government voter registration form when signing up people to vote in federal elections. In an earlier case, the Supreme Court struck down an earlier Arizona law that required applicants using that form to provide proof of citizenship with the form. The Court held that Arizona was not “accepting and using” the federal form —which only had a citizenship check-box, and did not require proof of citizenship—because it added to its requirements.
As IRLI points out in its brief, the current Arizona law accepts the federal form as-is. Then, however, election officials are supposed to verify citizenship claims on the form by looking at databases. If they are not able to verify an applicant’s citizenship, even after contacting the applicant and asking for proof, they cannot register the applicant to vote.
The Constitution puts the states, not the federal government, in charge of voter qualifications (such as citizenship) in federal elections. And the citizenship requirement Arizona imposes is vital to the right of the American people to govern themselves. Arizona’s power to set voter qualifications is meaningless if it cannot police its most important qualification, citizenship.
“No federal law can require states just to presume that people who say they are U.S. citizens are telling the truth, and the Supreme Court never said otherwise,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “We hope the court sees these lawsuits for what they are—an outrageous, partisan attempt to get as many noncitizens to vote in Arizona as possible—and upholds Arizona’s law.”
The cases are Mia Familia Vota v. Fontes, Nos. 24-3188, 24-3559, 24-4029 (Ninth Circuit).
