A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Kansas can’t require voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a permanent injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Julia Robinson in 2018 and found that Kansas’s requirement to provide identification when registering to vote violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment as well as the National Voter Registration Act.
The law required Kansans who were registering to vote to provide documents proving their U.S. citizenship, such as a birth certificate or a passport.
Kansas argued that it has an interest in protecting election integrity by preventing voter fraud and that providing proof of citizenship is not a significant burden on voters. The court agreed that Kansas had a legitimate interest in protecting election integrity but found that the 67 instances of voter fraud since 1999 did not justify the burden placed on Kansans.
“The district court found that even under calculations from one of the Secretary’s experts, the estimated number of suspended applications that belonged to noncitizens was ‘statistically indistinguishable from zero,’ while ‘more than 99% of the individuals’ whose voter-registration applications were suspended were citizens who presumably would have been able to vote but for the DPOC requirement,” the court noted in its 84-page ruling.
Kansas’s voter registration law was championed by then-Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who was selected by President Trump to lead his commission on voter fraud. Kobach was ordered by Robinson to take remedial legal education classes.
Kobach called the decision “the essence of judicial activism, setting aside the plain meaning of the law and replacing it with a subjective, policy-based balancing test.” He added that it was “highly likely” that the Supreme Court would overturn the 10th Circuit Court’s ruling if Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt appeals.
The 10th Circuit decision striking down Kansas’s proof-of-citizenship law is the essence of judicial activism, setting aside the plain meaning of the law and replacing it with a subjective, policy-based balancing test. 1/
— Kris W. Kobach (@KrisKobach1787) April 29, 2020
The drafters and ratifiers of the 14th Amendment had no such intention. The ruling by the two, 10th Circuit judges is clearly incorrect. If the Attorney General appeals and the Supreme Court takes the case, it is highly likely that the high court will overturn the decision. /END
— Kris W. Kobach (@KrisKobach1787) April 29, 2020
Dale Ho, the director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, praised the ruling, saying, “We are gratified the court struck it down and now call upon Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab to turn the page on Kris Kobach’s sorry legacy of voter suppression, drop any further appeals, and work with us collaboratively in the interests of all Kansas voters.”
