Supreme Court Strikes Down Arizona Voting Law cbsnews.com | June 17, 2013, 10:43 AM Excerpts: The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states cannot on their own require would-be voters to prove they are U.S. citizens before using a federal registration system designed to make signing up easier. The justices voted 7-2 to throw out Arizona's voter-approved requirement that prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to use a registration form produced under the federal "Motor Voter" voter registration law. Federal law "precludes Arizona from requiring a federal form applicant to submit information beyond that required by the form itself," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the court's majority. The court was considering the legality of Arizona's requirement that prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to use a registration form produced under the federal "motor voter" registration law. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which doesn't require such documentation, trumps Arizona's Proposition 200 passed in 2004. Arizona appealed that decision to the Supreme Court. "Today's decision sends a strong message that states cannot block their citizens from registering to vote by superimposing burdensome paperwork requirements on top of federal law," said Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and lead counsel for the voters who challenged Proposition 200. "The Supreme Court has affirmed that all U.S. citizens have the right to register to vote using the national postcard, regardless of the state in which they live," she said. Kathy McKee, who led the push to get the proposition on the ballot in Arizona, said the ruling makes it harder to combat voter fraud, including fraud carried out by people who don't have permission to be in the country. "To even suggest that the honor system works, really?" McKee said. "You have to prove who you are just to use your charge card now." The case focuses on Arizona, which has tangled frequently with the federal government over immigration issues involving the Mexican border. But it has broader implications because four other states - Alabama, Georgia, Kansas and Tennessee - have similar requirements, and 12 other states are contemplating such legislation. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the court's ruling. The Constitution "authorizes states to determine the qualifications of voters in federal elections, which necessarily includes the related power to determine whether those qualifications are satisfied," Thomas said in his dissent. Opponents of Arizona's law see it as an attack on vulnerable voter groups such as minorities, immigrants and the elderly. They say they've counted more than 31,000 potentially legal voters in Arizona who easily could have registered before Proposition 200 but were blocked initially by the law in the 20 months after it passed in 2004. They say about 20 percent of those thwarted were Latino. Under Proposition 200, Arizona officials require an Arizona driver's license issued after 1996, a U.S. birth certificate, a passport or other similar document, or the state will reject the federal registration application form. "Federal law already provides enough protection, and states should not be unduly burdening eligible citizens who want to register to vote," Advancement Project Co-Director Penda D. Hair said. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162...rt-strikes-down-arizona-voting-law/?pageNum=2 ........ IMO: When a United States citizen goes anywhere he or she is prone to be asked to provide his ID, SS card, pin number for any safe deposit box, his drivers license, a sobriety test, or if he is stopped in a checkpoint encounter to provide proof of who he is and who every United States citizen is. But for untold millions of illegal aliens sneaking into our country, disregarding all the rules of obtaining legal entry and citizenship, causing chaos in the workplace, schools, hospitals, court systems, and prisons, we are now expected to grant him the most perfect example of American citizenship...the right to vote!! Apparently it is not enough for citizen taxpayers to fund them and their childrens school education, medical care, load the court system with criminal cases, jam our prisons with illegal felons...now we have a legal citizen from another country voting for American candidates at the polls in a country which he is not a legal citizen in. It is pure insanity and complete disregard for our Constitution to allow a non-citizen to vote and make any kind of potential impact on our jurisprudence. What about the other aliens that wait patiently in line for entrance into this country, who have waited for years while we become inundated with hordes of poor people running across the borders under cover of night to find low paying jobs that are not taxed, are given free medical care, free educations, free food stamps, and advice on how to apply for other benefits that negatively affects our economy.
Supreme Court is taking some serious measures against the voting law in Arizona for getting desired and optimum results based on voting which are free and fair from any favoritism. Read more: Supreme Court strikes down Arizona voting law
