Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/12pdf/12-71_7l48.pdf
Page Number: 25.0

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

1 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

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 THOMAS, dissenting. 
This  case  involves  the  federal  requirement  that  States
“accept  and  use,”  42  U. S. C.  §1973gg–4(a)(1),  the  federal 
voter  registration  form  created  pursuant  to  the  National
Voter  Registration  Act  (NVRA).    The  Court  interprets
“accept and use,” with minor exceptions, to require States
to register any individual who completes and submits the 
federal form.  It, therefore, holds that §1973gg–4(a)(1) pre-
empts  an  Arizona  law  requiring  additional  information
to  register.    As  the  majority  recognizes,  ante,  at  13–15, 
its  decision  implicates  a  serious  constitutional  issue—
whether Congress has power to set qualifications for those
who vote in elections for federal office. 

I  do  not  agree,  and  I  think  that  both  the  plain  text
and  the  history  of  the  Voter  Qualifications  Clause,  U. S.
Const.,  Art. I,  §2,  cl. 1,  and  the  Seventeenth  Amendment 
authorize  States  to  determine  the  qualifications  of  voters
in federal elections, which necessarily includes the related
power to determine whether those qualifications are satis-
fied.  To avoid substantial constitutional problems created
by  interpreting  §1973gg–4(a)(1)  to  permit  Congress  to  ef- 
fectively  countermand  this  authority,  I  would  construe 
the  law  as  only  requiring  Arizona  to  accept  and  use  the 
form  as  part  of  its  voter  registration  process,  leaving  the 
State  free  to  request  whatever  additional  information  it