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the clause expressly authorizes Congress to enact necessarily must be
implemented by state and local election officials.
136
Consistent with this
view, courts have rejected anti-commandeering challenges to the National
Voter Registration Act (NVRA),
137
which requires state officials to make
voter registration forms available at certain public offices and proscribes
detailed requirements for their processing.
138
Paul McGreal, however,
offers a persuasive argument that the Constitution’s “text, history,
precedent, [and] structure,” as well as “prior government practice,”
demonstrates that Congress may not commandeer state and local officials
under the Elections Clause.
139
Other commentators
140
sidestep the Elections Clause issue by
contending that, even if Article I does not authorize Congress to
commandeer state officials, it may do so when enacting laws under Section
5 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
141
The Court also has yet to directly
address this theory. Such an approach might be more persuasive than an
argument under the Elections Clause itself, since the Fourteenth
136 Evan H. Caminker, Printz, State Sovereignty, and the Limits of Formalism, 1997
S
UP. CT. REV. 199, 237–38; Dan T. Coenen & Edward J. Larson, Congressional Power over
Presidential Elections: Lessons from the Past and Reforms for the Future, 43 W
M. & MARY
L. REV. 851, 897 (2002); Kevin K. Green, Note, A Vote Properly Cast? The
Constitutionality of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, 22 J.
LEGIS. 45, 82–83
(1996); see also Amar, supra note 111, at 259–60; Michael S. Greve, Fallacies of Fallacies,
94 B.U.
L. REV. 1359, 1372 n.84 (2014).
137 Pub. L. No. 103-31, 107 Stat. 77, 77 (1993) (codified in scattered sections of 39
U.S.C. and 52 U.S.C. (2012)).
138 Voting Rights Coal. v. Wilson, 60 F.3d 1411, 1415 (9th Cir. 1995) (“Congress may
conscript state agencies to carry out voter registration for the election of Representatives and
Senators.”); see also Ass’n of Cmty. Orgs. for Reform Now v. Miller, 129 F.3d 833, 836
(6th Cir. 1997) (affirming the NVRA’s constitutionality because the Elections Clause
empowers Congress to direct states to amend their laws governing federal elections); Ass’n
of Cmty. Orgs. for Reform Now v. Edgar, 56 F.3d 791 (7th Cir. 1995) (pre-Printz case
affirming NVRA).
139 Paul E. McGreal, Unconstitutional Politics, 76 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 519, 553–54
(2001).
140 Caminker, supra note 136, at 239–40; Pamela S. Karlan, Section 5 Squared:
Congressional Power to Extend and Amend the Voting Rights Act, 44 H
OUS. L. REV. 1, 24–
25 (2007); Brian C. Brook, Note, Federalizing the First Responders to Acts of Terrorism via
the Militia Clauses, 54 DUKE L.J. 999, 1005–06 (2005); see also William D. Araiza,
Deference to Congressional Fact-Finding in Rights-Enforcing and Rights-Limiting
Legislation, 88 N.Y.U. L. REV. 878, 940 (2013); Roderick M. Hills, Jr., The Political
Economy of Cooperative Federalism: Why State Autonomy Makes Sense and “Dual
Sovereignty” Doesn’t, 96 M
ICH. L. REV. 813, 888–89 (1998). But see Michael D. Hatcher,
Note, Printz Policy: Federalism Undermines Miranda, 88 G
EO. L.J. 177, 189–90 (1999).
141 U.S. CONST. amend. XIV, § 5.