In case you missed it, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in D.C. ruled on Friday evening that the states of Kansas, Georgia, and Alabama cannot require proof of citizenship when registering to vote using a national voter registration form.
"With just weeks to go before a critical presidential election, we are grateful to the court of appeals for stopping this thinly veiled discrimination in its tracks," Chris Carson, president of the League of Women Voters, which had sued to block the new requirements, said in a statement.
One thing I'd like to point that not many others have is that this movement to require proof of citizenship was the brainchild of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. You may recognize Kobach as the man who authored Arizona's "Papers Please" anti-immigration law which was eventually struck down by the Supreme Court. Kobach evidently has an obsession with requiring people of color to carry their papers with them at all times.
Kobach adamantly argues that proof of citizenship is required to prevent fraud, but the court disagreed. It's difficult to convince the court that your discriminatory law is needed to prevent fraud if you cannot provide evidence that fraud actually exists.
The Kansas state legislature granted Kobach the authority to bypass the state Department of Justice and prosecute fraud directly from his own office, but Kobach's witch hunt has not uncovered any grand schemes or suspicious activity beyond a handful of benign cases involving clerical or administrative error.
Kobach has advised GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump on immigration policy.