On Monday afternoon, May 2, a U.S. District Court heard oral arguments in Schmidt v Kosinski, e.d., 1:22cv-2210. A decision is expected this week on the Libertarian Party’s request for injunctive relief against the ban on out-of-state circulators.
On May 2, Robby Starbuck Newsom, a Republican candidate for Congress in Tennessee, filed a federal lawsuit to get himself on the Republican primary ballot. The state Republican Party had barred him from its primary ballot because he had not voted in at least three of the last four Republican primaries. The rule sets up a duration of residency requirement for congressional candidates. Newsom v Golden, m.d., 3:22cv-318. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge William L. Campbell, a Trump appointee.
On the evening of May 2, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed S8949, the bill passed earlier that day that allows indicted candidates to remove themselves from ballots.
The U.S. Supreme Court is very likely to allow states to almost completely ban abortion. This Vox article has a map showing the 22 states that have abortion bans on their statute books. Eleven of these states have the statewide initiative process. Opponents of government control of abortion will probably use the initiative process. The eleven states with abortion bans, and with the initiative, are Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.
A New York state trial court will consider a lawsuit on May 10 that argues the lower house of the legislature, the Assembly, also has unconstitutional districts. See this story. The U.S. House and State Senate districts have already been struck down by state courts.
