Ariz. v. Inter Tribal Council of Ariz., Inc.

Decision Date17 June 2013
Docket NumberNo. 12–71.,12–71.
Citation186 L.Ed.2d 239,570 U.S. 1,133 S.Ct. 2247
Parties ARIZONA, et al., Petitioners v. The INTER TRIBAL COUNCIL OF ARIZONA, INC., et al.
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Thomas C. Horne, Attorney General, for Petitioners.

Patricia Millett, for Respondents.

Sri Srinivasan, for the United States as amicus curiae, by special leave of the Court, supporting the Respondents.

Thomas C. Horne, Attorney General of Arizona, Counsel of Record, M. Colleen Connor, Counsel of Record, Paula S. Bickett, Chief Counsel, Civil Appeals, Thomas M. Collins, Assistant Attorney General, Phoenix, AZ, Melissa G. Iyer, Burch & Cracchiolo, P.A., Phoenix, AZ, for State Petitioners.

Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Jon M. Greenbaum, Robert A. Kengle, Mark A. Posner, R. Erandi Zamora, Washington, DC, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Patricia A. Millett, Michael C. Small, Christopher M. Egleson, Washington, DC, Steptoe & Johnson LLP, David J. Bodney, Phoenix, AZ, Osborn Maledon, P.A., David B. Rosenbaum, Thomas L. Hudson, Phoenix, AZ, Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., Joe P. Sparks, The Sparks Law Firm, P.C., Scottsdale, AZ, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Laughlin McDonald, Atlanta, GA, AARP Foundation Litigation, Daniel B. Kohrman, Washington, DC, for Respondents.

Thomas A. Saenz, Nina Perales, Karolina J. Lyznik, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., San Antonio, TX, Daniel R. Ortega, Jr., Ortega Law Firm, Phoenix, AZ, Karl J. Sandstrom, Perkins Coie, Washington, DC, for Jesus M. Gonzalez, Bernie Abeytia, Debbie Lopez, Georgia Morrison Flores, Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, Valle Del Sol, Friendly House, Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc., Arizona Hispanic Community Forum, Common Cause, Project Vote.

Justice SCALIA delivered the opinion of the Court.

The National Voter Registration Act requires States to "accept and use" a uniform federal form to register voters for federal elections. The contents of that form (colloquially known as the Federal Form) are prescribed by a federal agency, the Election Assistance Commission. The Federal Form developed by the EAC does not require documentary evidence of citizenship; rather, it requires only that an applicant aver, under penalty of perjury, that he is a citizen. Arizona law requires voter-registration officials to "reject" any application for registration, including a Federal Form, that is not accompanied by concrete evidence of citizenship. The question is whether Arizona's evidence-of-citizenship requirement, as applied to Federal Form applicants, is pre-empted by the Act's mandate that States " accept and use" the Federal Form.

I

Over the past two decades, Congress has erected a complex superstructure of federal regulation atop state voter-registration systems. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), 107 Stat. 77, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1973gg et seq., "requires States to provide simplified systems for registering to vote in federal elections." Young v. Fordice, 520 U.S. 273, 275, 117 S.Ct. 1228, 137 L.Ed.2d 448 (1997). The Act requires each State to permit prospective voters to "register to vote in elections for Federal office" by any of three methods: simultaneously with a driver's license application, in person, or by mail. § 1973gg–2(a).

This case concerns registration by mail. Section 1973gg–2(a)(2) of the Act requires a State to establish procedures for registering to vote in federal elections "by mail application pursuant to section 1973gg–4 of this title." Section 1973gg–4, in turn, requires States to "accept and use" a standard federal registration form. § 1973gg–4(a)(1). The Election Assistance Commission is invested with rulemaking authority to prescribe the contents of that Federal Form. § 1973gg–7(a)(1) ; see § 15329.1

The EAC is explicitly instructed, however, to develop the Federal Form "in consultation with the chief election officers of the States." § 1973gg–7(a)(2). The Federal Form thus contains a number of state-specific instructions, which tell residents of each State what additional information they must provide and where they must submit the form. See National Mail Voter Registration Form, pp. 3–20, online at http://www.eac.gov (all Internet materials as visited June 11, 2013, and available in Clerk of Court's case file); 11 CFR § 9428.3 (2012). Each state-specific instruction must be approved by the EAC before it is included on the Federal Form.

To be eligible to vote under Arizona law, a person must be a citizen of the United States. Ariz. Const., Art. VII, § 2 ; Ariz.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 16–101(A) (West 2006). This case concerns Arizona's efforts to enforce that qualification. In 2004, Arizona voters adopted Proposition 200, a ballot initiative designed in part "to combat voter fraud by requiring voters to present proof of citizenship when they register to vote and to present identification when they vote on election day." Purcell v. Gonzalez, 549 U.S. 1, 2, 127 S.Ct. 5, 166 L.Ed.2d 1 (2006) (per curiam ).2 Proposition 200 amended the State's election code to require county recorders to "reject any application for registration that is not accompanied by satisfactory evidence of United States citizenship." Ariz.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 16–166(F) (West Supp.2012). The proof-of-citizenship requirement is satisfied by (1) a photocopy of the applicant's passport or birth certificate, (2) a driver's license number, if the license states that the issuing authority verified the holder's U.S. citizenship, (3) evidence of naturalization, (4) tribal identification, or (5) "[o]ther documents or methods of proof ... established pursuant to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986." Ibid. The EAC did not grant Arizona's request to include this new requirement among the state-specific instructions for Arizona on the Federal Form. App. 225. Consequently, the Federal Form includes a statutorily required attestation, subscribed to under penalty of perjury, that an Arizona applicant meets the State's voting requirements (including the citizenship requirement), see § 1973gg–7(b)(2), but does not require concrete evidence of citizenship.

The two groups of plaintiffs represented here—a group of individual Arizona residents (dubbed the Gonzalez plaintiffs, after lead plaintiff Jesus Gonzalez) and a group of nonprofit organizations led by the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona (ITCA)—filed separate suits seeking to enjoin the voting provisions of Proposition 200. The District Court consolidated the cases and denied the plaintiffs' motions for a preliminary injunction. App. to Pet. for Cert. 1g. A two-judge motions panel of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit then enjoined Proposition 200 pending appeal. Purcell, 549 U.S., at 3, 127 S.Ct. 5. We vacated that order and allowed the impending 2006 election to proceed with the new rules in place. Id., at 5–6, 127 S.Ct. 5. On remand, the Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court's initial denial of a preliminary injunction as to respondents' claim that the NVRA pre-empts Proposition 200's registration rules. Gonzalez v. Arizona, 485 F.3d 1041, 1050–1051 (2007). The District Court then granted Arizona's motion for summary judgment as to that claim. App. to Pet. for Cert. 1e, 3e. A panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part but reversed as relevant here, holding that "Proposition 200's documentary proof of citizenship requirement conflicts with the NVRA's text, structure, and purpose." Gonzalez v. Arizona, 624 F.3d 1162, 1181 (2010). The en banc Court of Appeals agreed. Gonzalez v. Arizona, 677 F.3d 383, 403 (2012). We granted certiorari. 568 U.S. ––––, 133 S.Ct. 476, 184 L.Ed.2d 296 (2012).

II

The Elections Clause, Art. I, § 4, cl. 1, provides:

"The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the places of chusing Senators."

The Clause empowers Congress to pre-empt state regulations governing the "Times, Places and Manner" of holding congressional elections. The question here is whether the federal statutory requirement that States "accept and use" the Federal Form pre-empts Arizona's state-law requirement that officials "reject" the application of a prospective voter who submits a completed Federal Form unaccompanied by documentary evidence of citizenship.

A

The Elections Clause has two functions. Upon the States it imposes the duty ("shall be prescribed") to prescribe the time, place, and manner of electing Representatives and Senators; upon Congress it confers the power to alter those regulations or supplant them altogether. See U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U.S. 779, 804–805, 115 S.Ct. 1842, 131 L.Ed.2d 881 (1995) ; id., at 862, 115 S.Ct. 1842 (THOMAS, J., dissenting). This grant of congressional power was the Framers' insurance against the possibility that a State would refuse to provide for the election of representatives to the Federal Congress. "[E]very government ought to contain in itself the means of its own preservation," and "an exclusive power of regulating elections for the national government, in the hands of the State legislatures, would leave the existence of the Union entirely at their mercy. They could at any moment annihilate it by neglecting to provide for the choice of persons to administer its affairs." The Federalist No. 59, pp. 362–363 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961) (A. Hamilton) (emphasis deleted). That prospect seems fanciful today, but the widespread, vociferous opposition to the proposed Constitution made it a very real concern in the founding era.

The Clause's substantive scope is broad. "Times, Places, and Manner," we have written, are "comprehensive words," which "embrace authority to provide a complete code for congressional elections," including, as relevant here and as petitioners do not contest, regulations relating to "r...

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