(Updates with 11-judge panel in second paragraph.)
April 27 (Bloomberg) -- A federal appeals court voted to reconsider its October ruling striking down a portion of Arizona’s election law requiring residents to show proof of citizenship.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed today to have an 11-judge panel reconsider an earlier three-judge ruling that the Arizona law conflicts with the National Voter Registration Act.
The three-judge panel on Oct. 26 invalidated parts of Arizona’s Proposition 200, a 2004 voter-approved initiative on registration for state and federal elections. That ruling didn’t disturb a requirement that voters show identification at the polls. In the earlier 2-1 decision, the judges said the proof-of- citizenship requirement conflicted with the intent of the federal law aiming to increase voter registration by streamlining the process with a single form and removing state- imposed obstacles to registration. The law was challenged by voting rights and Hispanic advocacy groups. Arizona officials sought reconsideration of the October decision, which was granted today in a one-page order from the court. No date has been set for the rehearing.
The case is Gonzalez v. Arizona, 08-17115, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (San Francisco).
--Editors: Peter Blumberg, Andrew Dunn
To contact the reporters on this story: Pamela MacLean in San Francisco at pmaclean@pacbell.net; Karen Gullo in San Francisco at kgullo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
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