# U.S. Supreme Court orders Michigan to respond in emergency citizenship ballot fight
LANSING, Mich. — The U.S. Supreme Court has been pulled into a high-stakes fight over whether a proof-of-citizenship amendment will appear on Michigan's November 3 ballot, after a justice ordered state election officials to respond to an emergency application.
On Tuesday, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh requested a response from Michigan officials by noon Wednesday. The emergency application, filed Monday, names the Michigan Board of State Canvassers, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Director of Elections Jonathan Brater.
The proposal and the signature fight
The measure at the center of the dispute is a proposed amendment to the Michigan Constitution from Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan (ACVM). The initiative would add language to the state constitution stating that only U.S. citizens may vote, require regular review of the voter rolls, and require photo identification for voters.
Sponsors submitted more than 700,000 signatures in March, well above the 446,198 valid signatures required to gain ballot access. Under state law, however, the state Bureau of Elections reviews a random sample of 1,000 signatures to certify a proposal, and a minimum number must be valid for the initiative to move forward.
The Bureau of Elections found only 612 of the 1,000 sampled signatures to be valid, falling short of the threshold. A parallel review by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers found 626 of 1,000 valid, leaving the board three signatures short and resulting in a split vote that blocked the proposal from advancing.
The legal path to Washington
ACVM first took its case to the Michigan Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the board's decision. When the state high court did not act, the group turned to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that it had no other option.
"The Michigan supremes sat on it," a spokesperson for the initiative told supporters. "Outrageous. So we felt we had no chance."
In its filing, ACVM argued that denying ballot access causes irreparable harm that cannot be fixed by any remedy after an election.
"If respondents' decision to keep ACVM's petition off the ballot stands, then Michigan voters will never have a chance to vote on the petition, regardless of whether it should or should not have been placed on the ballot," the group wrote. "The choice is thus between irreparable harm and no harm at all."
ACVM also accused the board of canvassers of waiting more than five months before denying its petition, and urged the justices to act by Sept. 3, one day before the deadline to finalize Michigan's ballot.
A first for Michigan
This is the first initiative in recent state history to take an urgent ballot-access fight directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, skipping the normal path of waiting for lower courts to rule first.
Paul Jacob, president of the Liberty Initiative Fund, said the group would not back down. "I am more than frustrated, I am ready to continue to do battle. We are not giving up," he said. "You can't cheat the people of Michigan and get away with it. We're going to be back. We're going to go to every court we have to go to."
What happens next
Michigan's ballot must be finalized by Friday. Once Justice Kavanaugh receives the state's response, he will decide how to proceed. Absentee ballots in Michigan begin to go out on Sept. 24.
The case arrives amid a broader national debate over proof-of-citizenship requirements. The Supreme Court recently cleared the way for President Donald Trump to enforce an executive order creating lists of U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state and directing the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots only to verified voters. The Court also has an Arizona proof-of-citizenship case on its docket in the coming months.
Federal officials note that noncitizen voting is exceedingly rare and that federal voter registration already requires applicants to swear under penalty of perjury that they meet all eligibility requirements, including citizenship.