WASHINGTON — Yesterday, a major federal court ruling protecting Arizona voters from unequal citizenship investigations became final. This victory arrives at a moment when similar citizenship‑based voting restrictions are spreading nationwide.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) has filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review parts of the Ninth Circuit’s decision in this challenge to Arizona’s citizenship-check laws. But the petition does not challenge the federal court’s decision striking down the state’s “reason to believe” provision in HB 2243—a rule that would have required county officials to investigate voters based on vague suspicions about their citizenship status.
By omitting the issue entirely, the RNC has given up their defense of the “reason to believe” provision, and the ruling will stand.
This victory was secured in a case brought by Poder Latinx, Chicanos Por La Causa, and Si Se Vota Chicanos Por La Causa Action Fund, which were represented by Fair Elections Center, Arnold & Porter, and Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest.
“This decision affirms a fundamental truth: our democracy cannot operate on suspicion or exclusion. At Poder Latinx, our work is rooted in ensuring that every eligible voter—especially those too often targeted or overlooked—can participate without fear of being questioned, flagged, or silenced. This outcome reflects the power of communities who organize, advocate, and demand accountability from the systems meant to serve them. It also sends a clear message nationwide that protecting the freedom to vote is not optional, but essential to the future we are building together,” said Yadira Sánchez, Executive Director at Poder Latinx.
“Our nonpartisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns reflect the long-held universal value that a robust democracy calls for citizen participation. Every eligible voter who holds the cherished individual right to partake in elections must first have access to the ballot itself,” said Joseph Garcia, Vice President of Public Policy at Chicanos Por La Causa and Executive Director of Si Se Vota Chicanos Por La Causa Action Fund.
“This is a decisive victory for Arizona voters and a demonstration that the Civil Rights Act means what it says: unequal standards or procedures have no place in our voter registration systems,” said Jon Sherman, Litigation Director at Fair Elections Center. “State legislatures across the nation are experimenting with untested and unreliable citizenship‑check schemes. They should be on notice that all judges who reviewed this case unanimously agreed that federal law forbids suspicion‑based investigations of voters.”
The blocked provision would have opened the door to widespread, arbitrary investigations of eligible voters. Court filings showed that many Arizonans could have been flagged for extra, unwarranted scrutiny based on nothing more than outdated databases or local officials’ subjective judgments or biases.
A recap of Fair Elections Centers’ litigation work on the Arizona citizenship checks litigation can be found here.