This fall, the Republican National Committee will take one of the most consequential election integrity cases in a generation before the U.S. Supreme Court.
At stake is a principle so basic that most Americans would be shocked it is even being debated: Can states verify citizenship before someone is added to their voter rolls?
The answer should be obvious.
Citizenship is required to vote in federal elections. States should be allowed to check it.
But after years of lawsuits from far-left Democrats determined to weaken election safeguards, that question is now headed to the highest court in the land.
More than two decades ago, Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 200, requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. The state later strengthened those protections by giving election officials additional tools to verify citizenship and maintain accurate voter rolls.
Arizona lawmakers and voters understood something simple: if citizenship is required to vote, election officials should be able to confirm that requirement is met.
Instead of supporting those commonsense protections, extremist Democrats and activist groups sued to stop them.
For years, they have fought in court to block citizenship verification requirements, challenged efforts to remove noncitizens from voter rolls, and opposed safeguards designed to ensure that only eligible citizens participate in American elections. Time and again, they have argued that states should have fewer tools to verify voter eligibility and fewer options to maintain accurate voter rolls.
That position defies common sense.
When it comes to protecting our elections, Democrats suddenly claim verifying voter eligibility is “burdensome,” “discriminatory,” or even “voter suppression.” Americans prove who they are every day, whether they are boarding a plane, opening a bank account, or accessing basic services.
The Supreme Court must now decide whether states have the authority to enforce one of the most fundamental qualifications for voting: American citizenship.
That authority should not even be in question. The RNC is leading the legal battle to defend Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship requirement after Democrats went to court to block the law and prevent the state from removing noncitizens from its voter rolls. The case will help determine whether states retain the power to protect the integrity of their own elections.
States should not be forced to ignore evidence that registrants may be ineligible. Election officials should not be prevented from verifying citizenship. Courts should not stand in the way of safeguards that strengthen confidence in election outcomes.
At its core, this case asks whether states will keep the ability to enforce election laws as written or whether activist groups can continue using the courts to dismantle commonsense protections that voters themselves support.
And the stakes extend far beyond Arizona.
Across the country, many of the same left-wing groups opposing Arizona’s law have pursued a broader campaign to dismantle our nation’s election security measures. They’ve challenged voter ID laws, resisted efforts to clean voter rolls, opposed measures designed to verify voter eligibility, and repeatedly moved to weaken safeguards that help ensure elections are conducted fairly and transparently.
The RNC has fought back every step of the way.
Today, the RNC is engaged in over 170 election integrity lawsuits nationwide. From North Carolina to Georgia to Michigan to Texas to Virginia, we are fighting for voter ID, protections for mail-in ballots, accurate voter rolls, and stopping noncitizen voting.
Those efforts have delivered important victories. But our Arizona case represents the landmark battle in the next chapter of that fight.
RNC Chairman Joe Gruters currently serves as a Florida State Senator and has worked as a Republican Party activist and leader for the past 25 years, including as Chairman of the Republican Party of Sarasota, Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, and as Chairman of the RNC’s Election Integrity committee. He has been serving as RNC Chairman since August 2025.
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