The Supreme Court agreed on June 29, 2026, to hear the SCOTUS Arizona voter registration case over whether federal law bars Arizona from enforcing voter-registration rules that require documentary proof of citizenship on the state form. The justices will take up the dispute in their next term, which begins in October.
More than 19,000 Arizonans who had not supplied proof of citizenship were registered as federal-only voters as of July 2023. That federal form does not require citizenship proof, and in Arizona those applicants may be registered only for federal elections; they are not eligible to vote for president or by mail.
Arizona laws adopted in 2022
The case concerns two Arizona laws adopted in 2022. One requires documentary proof of citizenship to register on a state form. The other sets procedures for state election officials to review voter rolls and cancel the registrations of noncitizens.
The dispute has moved through earlier court rulings on the National Voting Registration Act and a 2018 consent decree. A federal district court said election officials could not reject state voter-registration forms that lacked proof of citizenship, and it also ruled that Arizona could not systematically cancel voter registrations within 90 days of a federal election.
9th Circuit rulings in Arizona
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld the order blocking enforcement of Arizona's voter-registration laws. A divided panel said the proof-of-citizenship requirement for people registering for federal elections on the state form violates the National Voting Registration Act.
The 9th Circuit also said the requirement for county recorders to reject state-form applicants without citizenship proof violates the 2018 consent decree. It further held that the law bars county recorders from systematically cancelling the registrations of voters they have reason to believe are not citizens within 90 days of a federal election.
Supreme Court and Arizona
Arizona Republicans and the Republican National Committee asked the Supreme Court for emergency relief ahead of the 2024 election. The court allowed Arizona to enforce the proof-of-citizenship requirement for the state form, but it declined to allow enforcement of Arizona's rules requiring proof of citizenship to vote for president or by mail.
The new review puts those rules back before the justices on the full merits. How the Supreme Court will rule on Arizona's proof-of-citizenship and voter-roll cancellation laws will determine whether the state can keep those registration limits in place for people who use the state form.
