Siding with the Obama administration, the US Supreme Court on Monday tossed out a provision in a Arizona state law requiring proof of citizenship for registration as a voter.<\/p>\n
With a 7-2 majority, the apex court ruled that the state’s voter-approved law interfered with federal law designed to make voter registration easier.<\/p>\n
Opponents of the law saw it as an attack on vulnerable voter groups such as minorities, immigrants and the elderly, while the state called the provision a “sensible precaution” to prevent voter fraud.<\/p>\n
Civil rights group countered that it added an unconstitutional and burdensome layer of paperwork for tens of thousands of citizens.<\/p>\n
The Obama Justice Department opposed the Arizona law, which went beyond what other states have done to ensure integrity in the registration system.<\/p>\n
The case focuses on Arizona but the decision would have wider implications as four other states – Alabama, Georgia, Kansas and Tennessee – have similar requirements, and 12 other states are contemplating such legislation.<\/p>\n
A single judge of the apex court a year ago blocked the Arizona law from being enforced, while the full court decided internally whether to accept pending appeals for review.<\/p>\n
Designed to streamline election participation, the federal law called the Motor Voter Law requires states to have any application for a driver’s license treated also as a voter registration — the “motor voter.”<\/p>\n
It requires states to “accept and use” mail-in and in-person applications. A federal Election Assistance Commission was created to produce a nationally uniform voter application form, which states must use.<\/p>\n
Any extra state instructions, or “add-ons,” must be approved by the commission.<\/p>\n
The question before the court was whether certain extra instructions are permitted, and just how the federal form must be respected in the first place.<\/p>\n
(Source:IANS)<\/p>\n
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Siding with the Obama administration, the US Supreme Court on Monday tossed out a provision in a Arizona state law requiring proof of citizenship for registration as a voter. With a 7-2 majority, the apex court ruled that the state’s voter-approved law interfered with federal law designed to make voter registration easier. Opponents of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[24717,47776,47765,24716,24718,47774,47775,23371,24715],"class_list":["post-28833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-law-news","tag-arizona-state-law","tag-national-news","tag-news","tag-obama-administration","tag-obama-justice-department","tag-todays-news","tag-todays-top-news","tag-top-news","tag-us-top-court-rules-voters-dont-need-citizenship-proof"],"yoast_head":"\n