AG to defend proof of citizenship requirement for Ariz. voter registration

By Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services
Monday, June 20, 2011 12:00 pm

PASADENA, Calif. — The state’s top lawyer will attempt Tuesday to save a key provision from the state’s first voter-approved initiative aimed at illegal immigrants.

Arizona can impose a requirement to produce proof of citizenship to register to vote, Attorney General Tom Horne will argue. More to the point, Horne, who is arguing the case personally, contends the mandate does not run afoul of federal law.

But his interpretation of the federal law runs contrary to the majority ruling of a three-judge panel of the court last year which concluded what Arizona is doing is illegal. And one of the judges ruling against the state at that time was former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, sitting in for the hearing.

At the heart of Horne’s argument will be how to interpret the language of the federal law of what states must “accept and useâ€