The justices overruled a 2016 decision by a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In that decision, the court sided with the plaintiffs who argued that Ohio’s system violated federal law by discriminating against low-income voters.
Justice Alito began his majority opinion by observing that an estimated “24 million voter registrations in the United States—about one in eight—are either invalid or significantly inaccurate.” He said failing to vote cannot be the sole reason for purging voters, but Ohio “removes registrants only if they have failed to vote and have failed to respond to a notice.”
