TOPEKA – Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach led 25 states in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, urging justices to take the case and reverse a Ninth Circuit decision that undermines states’ ability to prevent non-citizens from voting in American elections.
“American elections are for American citizens. When noncitizens vote, they cancel out a lawful vote by a U.S. citizen, call into question the outcome of the election, and undermine the foundation of our system of government,” Kobach said. “It should go without saying that States may implement and enforce common-sense requirements to protect their elections against illegal voting. Here in Kansas, my office is prosecuting multiple noncitizens who have voted in our elections.”
The brief supports three related lawsuits stemming from challenges to 2022 Arizona election integrity laws that require proof of citizenship for full voter registration, limit applicants who fail to provide such proof to federal-only ballots, and direct officials to reject state registration forms that lack proof of citizenship.
A panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit sided with the plaintiffs.
“The court’s reasoning upends our system of government,” the brief reads. “The notion that a consent decree—not adjudicated on the merits and agreed to by a limited number of litigants—could limit the power of a state legislature to legislate infringes upon the States’ powers, amounts to legislating from the bench, and exceeds the jurisdictional powers afforded to federal courts.”
Eleven judges on the Ninth Circuit believed the case warranted reconsideration by the full court. “There is absolutely nothing unlawful or improper about a state ensuring that only citizens vote in its elections,” Kobach said. “The Ninth Circuit bent over backwards to give the activist plaintiffs everything on their wish list, issuing an opinion that distorts the law and defies common sense.”
The filing continues Kobach’s leadership on election integrity. As Kansas Secretary of State, he wrote and advocated for the passage of the Kansas Secure and Fair Elections Act, which made Kansas elections the most secure in the country. As Attorney General, Kobach previously led a multi-state amicus brief in an earlier stage of this case and secured partial Supreme Court relief allowing key Arizona provisions to take effect for the 2024 Presidential election. Kansas also led a coalition supporting Virginia’s removal of noncitizens from its voter rolls.
The brief was joined by Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. The Ninth Circuit’s decision resulted in three separate petitions asking the Supreme Court to take up the case.
The brief was filed in all three cases.
