On February 25, the Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 that Arizona can’t require voters who use the federal Voter Registration form to attach copies of a birth certificate or a certificate of naturalization. Mi Familia Vota v Fontes, 24-3188.
Arizona acknowledged that voters who use the federal form don’t need such documents to vote for Congress, but said they can’t vote for President without such documents. Arizona argued that the U.S. Constitution lets Congress pass election laws that govern congressional elections, as Congress had done when it passed the National Voter Registration Act, setting up federal voter registration forms. But Arizona insisted that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t let Congress pass laws regulating presidential elections.
Arizona’s attitude is a sharp departure from almost 100 years of precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court that Congress can regulate presidential elections. As long ago as 1934, Congress upheld federal campaign finance laws affecting presidential elections. In 1970 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Oregon v Mitchell that Congress even had the authority to set the voting age at 18 for presidential and congressional elections.
The decision is by Judge Ronald Gould, a Clinton appointee. It is also signed by Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, another Clinton appointee. The opinion is 79 pages. The dissent, by Trump appointee Patrick Bumatay, is 77 pages. There are other issues in the case also, all relating to voter registration.