Bills have been introduced in each house of the Tennessee legislature to bar naturalized citizens from running for congress in a party primary. They are SB 1825 by Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) and HB 2036 by Representative Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville). Here is the text. The two bills are identical.

It is clear that this bill, if enacted into law, would violate the U.S. Supreme Court decision U.S. Term Limits v Thornton, which said that states cannot add to the qualifications for congress that are mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.

Utah State Senator Michael McKell (R-Spanish Fork) has introduced SB 194. It is an omnibus election law bill, with a provision that changes how vacancies in the legislature are filled. Currently when a legislator does or resigns, that legislator’s party has the right to replace him or her. Recently the Forward Party gained a state legislator in Utah, because a Republican representative had changed his affiliation to show himself a member of the Forward Party. Then, that legislator had resigned, so the Forward Party was permitted to choose his replacement.

Under the bill, the outgoing legislator’s party when he or she left the legislature would not matter. Instead what would matter is the outgoing legislator’s party membership when he or she had last been elected. If this bill had been law earlier this year, the Forward Party could not now have a state legislator.

On January 23, a U.S. House redistricting bill, HB 488, was introduced in the Maryland House. See this story. But its chances in the Senate seem dim.