Some of Arizona's proof-of-citizenship requirements for the November election are blocked by the Supreme Court.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court declined to bring back certain provisions of an Arizona legislation supported by Republicans, which may have prevented thousands of voters from voting in person or by mail in the November presidential election.

The court allowed the state to impose additional proof-of-citizenship requirements that will make it more difficult for voters to register for state and local elections, but it also placed a hold on the portion of the law requiring voters to prove their US citizenship in order to cast a ballot in this year's presidential election. When registering to vote in a state, new voters will need to provide proof of citizenship.

An very significant battlefield in the current presidential election is Arizona. In 2020, the state was won by President Joe Biden by just over 10,000 votes. 2016 saw former President Donald Trump win it.

This is probably going to be the first of many cases involving election-related concerns that the Supreme Court will be called upon to hear urgent cases this year. The case raised the issue of non-citizen voting, which Republicans have attempted to make a central campaign issue this year. The Republican National Committee, backed by state GOP lawmakers who approved the bill, had asked the high court to intervene in the dispute over election regulations in the crucial battleground state.

In a brief order devoid of context, the Supreme Court rendered the decision in an emergency appeal.

Judges Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, three conservatives, stated they would have approved the state's proof-of-citizenship requirements in full. Four other justices, conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, would have suspended all of the law's challenged parts.