New York, NY, June 17, 2013 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down an Arizona law that would have required voters to show proof of citizenship to register to vote, as a “victory for voting rights and equality.”
Together with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, ADL filed an amicus brief in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, urging the Supreme Court to strike down Arizona’s law.
Barry Curtiss-Lusher, ADL National Chair, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:
The Supreme Court’s ruling is a victory for voting rights and equality. Twenty years ago, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to make it easier for Americans to exercise their constitutional rights to register and vote. The NVRA already requires registrants to certify, under penalty of perjury, that they are U.S. citizens. By adding a difficult requirement that would-be voters provide proof of citizenship before registering, Arizona’s law threatened to disenfranchise eligible voters who simply did not have, and could not get, the documentation.
This ruling also sends a message about equal access to the ballot box. Arizona’s law would have made it particularly hard for Latino and Native American individuals in the state to vote. The Supreme Court correctly concluded that this action was unconstitutional – and that it should not be more difficult for voters to register in Arizona than anywhere else.