Court Rules Arizona’s Law Restricting Voter Access is Unconstitutional

By Dione Friends Online Media Coordinator Today, the Ninth Circuit ruling in Gonzalez v. State of Arizona struck down critical provisions of an Arizona law that restricted voter access. The plaintiff in the case, Jesus Gonzalez, was a newly-naturalized U.S. Citizen when he tried to register to vote. Jesus provided his driver's license and his naturalization certificate number, but was rejected twice. Arizona officials claimed they couldn’t confirm his citizenship. Texas should recognize that laws like Arizona’s Proposition 200, which passed in 2004, are unconstitutional and violate the National Voting Rights Act because they force U.S. citizens to go through unnecessary obstacles to vote. “The court was correct in ruling that federal law does not require residents to produce unnecessary documents proving their citizenship in order to register to vote,” said Laughlin McDonald, director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project. “This is an important victory at a time when many states are making it harder for people to exercise their fundamental right to vote, which is the backbone of our democracy. We hope this decision sends a message to other states that we should not be making it harder for people to participate in our political process.” Learn more about the work the ACLU is doing to stop voter suppression .