The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Arizona Republicans to demand a citizenship test for November voters

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Arizona Republicans in a case related to the November presidential election. In an unsigned and sharply divided decision, the nation's highest court ruled that election officials must reject state voter registration forms submitted without proof of the applicant's US citizenship. In other words, non-citizens cannot vote in the Grand Canyon State.

However, the Supreme Court rejected other aspects of the lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee. The lawsuit asked the court to pause a lower court ruling against an election legislation enacted in 2022. The portion of the rejected lawsuit would have prevented thousands of already registered voters from voting in the election.

The complex 5-4 ruling evidenced the division within the Court over the case. In effect, there were two clear factions. On one side were Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who wanted to prevent the state from applying both measures. The other, composed of Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito Jr. and Neil Gorsuch, sought to uphold the GOP on both issues.

Since one provision was allowed and the other was not, it appears that John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh split their votes, sticking with the first group on registered voters and the second on the citizenship question.

Democrat Adrian Fontes, the local secretary of state, assured that he would "implement these changes while continuing to protect voter access." "My concern is that changes to the process should not occur this close to an election, it creates confusion for voters," he said in a statement.

The ruling comes just weeks before early voting begins in Arizona, a state highly coveted by Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. While it voted for Joe Biden by a very narrow margin in 2020, polls this time place the Republican as the favorite to take its 11 electoral votes.

Arkansas Supreme Court blocked a ballot referendum on abortion

Arkansas' highest court ruled in favor of the state's attorney general, Tim Griffin, who had accused supporters of the initiative of failing to file proper paperwork.

The ruling, 3-2, argued that "the petitioners failed to comply with the statutory filing requirements for paid developers." "The noncompliance is fatal," the justices added.

The dissenting opinion, written by Justices Karen Baker and Courtney Rae Hudson, accused Arkansas officials of changing the rules to prohibit the abortion ballot referendum.

"This requirement was made up out of whole cloth. Regnat Populus — The People Rule — is the motto of Arkansas. Today’s decision strips every Arkansan of this power," they wrote.