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.

Here is the Complaint.

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.

On May 2, some New York voters filed a federal lawsuit, asking the federal court to use the U.S. House district boundaries that the highest State Court recently declared to violate the State Constitution. De Gaudenar v Kosinski, s.d., 1:22cv-3534. Here is the Complaint. It says that some years ago, another federal court ordered the state to hold its congressional primary in June, not September, because federal law requires overseas absentee ballots to be mailed at least 45 days before any primary or election.

Of course, New York can hold an August primary and there is still time to mail the overseas ballots. Some states still hold congressional primaries in early September, and they manage to comply with the federal law. Thanks to PoliticalWire for this news.