The striking down of Arizona's voting law by the U.S. Supreme Court is a mistake that wrongly strips states of local powers they should have and could lead to more voter fraud, according to Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.
"The court made a mistake and once again expanded the power of the federal government at the expense at the states and the people," Fitton told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"Essentially what they're saying is that a federal form the states have to use … for people who want to register to vote — that form only requires people to sign a statement under oath that they are a citizen. Arizona said, well that's not good enough."
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On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled states cannot on their own make potential voters prove they are U.S. citizens before using a federal registration system that is meant to make signing up easier.
The 7-2 decision strikes down the requirement that prospective voters document their citizenship to use a registration form created under the federal "Motor Voter" voter registration law.
Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the court's majority that federal law "precludes Arizona from requiring a federal form applicant to submit information beyond that required by the form itself."
Fitton, author of the New York Times bestseller "The Corruption Chronicles," said Arizona's take on voter registration was the correct one.
"[Arizona said] if you want to register to vote in our state, you can use that form but we want some additional material to show that you're a citizen such as a driver's license or some other piece of documentation," he explained.
"The Supreme Court said no, this is not only sufficient, you can't go beyond it, and Justice [Samuel] Alito and Justice [Clarence] Thomas obviously disagreed.
"[They] pointed out … the U.S. Constitution gives states prerogatives to run elections and this interferes with those prerogatives in a way that's unconstitutional. So that's the debate."
Fitton believes the decision could lead to more voter fraud.
"It's a real problem when you have as many aliens running around our country. Many are lawfully here, tens of millions potentially aren't," He said.
"We have to have a way of making sure that only citizens are voting and registering the vote and this decision yesterday — whether or not it was correct — it certainly made it harder to do so.
Fitton — whose group is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation promoting "transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law" — said if liberals had their way, voting would be an even easier process.
"If the left had their druthers, everyone who was here in the United States would be almost automatically registered to vote and you can imagine the fraud that would lead to," he said.
"In the case of making sure that only citizens are registering to vote, the state can have forms separate from the federal form that they can request information. After the registrations take place, they can run the list against citizens registries … in order to make sure that only citizens are on the rolls."
Justice Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion, "said well of course Arizona can ask the federal government for clearance to add this material on," Fitton said.
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