On Thursday night, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned the order of a previous panel from its circuit in Mi Familia Vota v. Arizona, which had allowed a lawful requirement to go into effect that would reject State Voter Registration forms without proof of citizenship in Arizona.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes did not oppose the motion for reconsideration, leading the ruling from this latest panel that vacated enforcement of the law concerning State Voter Registration Forms.
The continuing judicial opinions are part of a challenge to HB 2492, which was authored and passed by the Arizona Free Enterprise Club in 2022 to stop non-U.S. citizens from registering and voting in our state.
“This opinion from two radical judges on the Ninth Circuit is a travesty of law and to the legal process, overturning a ruling issued just last week by the same court,” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “We are hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly intervene and reverse this poorly reasoned decision on appeal.”
In Judge Patrick J. Bumatay’s dissent, he writes, “Motions for reconsideration of a motions panel’s order are not meant to be a second bite at the apple. On the contrary, they are highly irregular and strongly disfavored, primarily appropriate if there have been ‘[c]hanges in legal or factual circumstances’ since the motions panel addressed the issue.”
“Yet facing identical legal and factual circumstances on an even more expedited basis, the majority now grants the motion and lifts the partial stay…” Judge Bumatay added. “All the public can take away from this episode is that four judges of the Ninth Circuit have voted to partially stay the injunction here, while two other judges voted against it. The two judges prevail – not because of any special insight, but because of the luck of an internal Ninth Circuit draw.”
Arizona Free Enterprise Club will be filing an emergency petition at the Supreme Court of the United States to appeal this most-recent decision from the Ninth Circuit panel.
