Victory for Republicans in lawsuit over voters in Arizona needing proof of citizenship to cast their ballot

The United States Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Arizona must enforce part of its voting measures requiring proof of citizenship documentation to register to vote just months before the November election. 

The decision is victory for Republicans after the state party and Republican National Committee took its request to the country's highest court. 

The justices ruled 5-4 to reinstate a provision of the state's voting laws after a federal judge blocked it in response to a challenge by the Biden administration and advocacy groups. 

It comes as voters head to the polls on November 5 to cast ballots in the presidential election between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, who continues to falsely claim he won Arizona in 2020. Biden won the state by less than 12,000 votes. 

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Arizona must enforce part of its voting laws requiring proof of citizenship which could impact thousands of would-be-voters

Chief Justice John Roberts joined fellow conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch to grant part of the Republicans' request. Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch signaled they would have granted the entire request.

Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. They would have denied the full request.

The decision could have a major impact on thousands of would-be-voters in a state that is considered one of the biggest battlegrounds in the country. 

In 2022, Arizona's Republican-controlled legislature adopted new restrictions on voter registrations as GOP legislatures across the country made changes to voting laws following the 2020 election. 

The law requires applicants to submit a federal registration form to provide evidence of U.S. citizenship to vote in the presidential election or vote by mail in all federal elections. Those who use a separate state-created form have even more restrictions.

Without proof of citizenship, applications are rejected, and officials who do not reject them could face a felony charge. 

The Supreme Court ruled part of the law related to the state voter registration form must be enforced. 

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the state must enforce the part of the law requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote using the state form. The court kept provisions preventing people from voting in the presidential election or by mail without proof if they used a separate federal form to register blocked

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to reinstate a provision of the state's voting laws with five conservative justices in the majority. Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined liberal justices in the dissent 

But the court kept on hold other provisions preventing people from voting in the presidential election or by mail without proof of citizenship if they used a separate federal form to register.

The RNC had requested the court reinstate the ban on registered voters casting ballots in the presidential election or by mail if they didn't provide proof of citizenship even if they used the federal form to register which does not require it.

State officials, including Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, had declined to enforce the law. 

He has said many of the 40,000 people registered to vote only in federal elections were students, service members and Native Americans who didn't have birth certificates on hand when registering.