By Jack Rodgers | Courthouse News
The new administration has declined “to make a further substantive submission” to the U.S. Supreme Court in cases over Arizona election laws the Ninth Circuit found discriminatory toward racial minorities.
The Department of Justice on Tuesday changed the federal government’s position in a case to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, focusing on the constitutionality of two Arizona election laws.
The court agreed this past October to hear the consolidated cases, set to be argued in March. Chief at issue are Arizona laws that prohibit voters from having non-family volunteers deliver their ballots and another law mandating the destruction of ballots cast in the wrong precinct — both found to be unduly discriminatory to minorities by the Ninth Circuit.
U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler noted in a letter to the court Tuesday that the Trump administration had filed a brief in support of Arizona’s laws and its Attorney General Mark Brnovich. However, following a change in administration, the Justice Department had decided to take another look at their position.
“The department has now concluded that, although it does not disagree with the conclusion in that brief that neither Arizona measure violates Section 2’s results test, the department does not adhere to the framework for application of Section 2 in vote-denial cases set forth in the brief,” Kneedler wrote. “In light of the approaching oral argument, however, the United States does not seek to make a further substantive submission in these cases.”
In a reply brief to the court, Brnovich argues factual record supports favoring open and accessible voting systems and maintaining Arizona’s voter laws. He also counters by writing a district court found 99% of minorities and 99.5% of non-minorities voted in their correct precincts during the 2016 election — arguing the law was not overtly discriminatory.
