Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/12pdf/12-71_7l48.pdf
Page Number: 4.0

Cite as:  570 U. S. ____ (2013) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 12–71 
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ARIZONA, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. THE INTER 

TRIBAL COUNCIL OF ARIZONA, INC., ET AL. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 

APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
 

[June 17, 2013] 

JUSTICE SCALIA delivered the opinion of the Court. 
The  National  Voter  Registration  Act  requires  States  to 
“accept and use” a uniform federal form to register voters
for federal elections.  The contents of that form (colloquially 
known  as  the  Federal  Form)  are  prescribed  by  a  federal 
agency, the Election Assistance Commission.  The Federal 
Form developed by the EAC does not require documentary 
evidence  of  citizenship;  rather,  it  requires  only  that  an
applicant  aver,  under  penalty  of  perjury,  that  he  is  a 
citizen.  Arizona law requires voter-registration officials to 
“reject”  any  application  for  registration,  including  a  Fed-
eral Form, that is not accompanied by concrete evidence of
citizenship.  The  question  is  whether  Arizona’s  evidence-
of-citizenship  requirement,  as  applied  to  Federal  Form
applicants, is pre-empted by the Act’s mandate that States
“accept and use” the Federal Form. 

I 

Over  the  past  two  decades,  Congress  has  erected  a 
complex  superstructure  of  federal  regulation  atop  state 
voter-registration  systems.    The  National  Voter  Registra-
tion  Act  of  1993  (NVRA),  107  Stat.  77,  as  amended,  42