According to this story, next year Mississippi State Senator Jeremy England will introduce a bill to restore the statewide initiative process. Mississippi had the initiative in the past, but in 2021 the State Supreme Court said it was fundamentally flawed because it specified a certain number of signatures from all five U.S. House districts, but Mississippi no longer had five districts.
On September 9, the Eleventh Circuit voted 2-1 to stay the order of the U.S. District Court that enjoined a new Florida residency requirement for initiative petitioners. The vote was 2-1. The majority consists of Judges Elizabeth L. Branch and Barbara Lagoa, Trump appointees. The dissent is by Judge Nancy Abudu, a Biden appointee. Florida Decides Healthcare v Byrd, 25-12370.
This result is shocking, because residency requirements for petitioners have been struck down in so many states. Both the majority and the dissent list the decisions of U.S. Courts of Appeals, but they don’t mention the many cases decided in U.S. District Courts.
The majority say the new Florida residency requirement is likely constitutional, although that has not yet been formally decided. Here is the order.
Here is a newspaper story about the case.
Here is a copy of the law. House Bill 1205 (2025).
On September 16, the federal government sued Oregon and Maine because those states have refused to submit an unredacted list of its registered voters to the U.S. Department of Justice. The federal government says it suspects Oregon and Maine are violating the National Voting Rights Act (NVRA) by not keeping its list of voters cleared of ineligible voters.
The Oregon case is USA v State of Oregon, 6:25cv-1666. Here is the Complaint.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai, a Biden appointee.
The Maine case is USA v Bellows, 1:25cv-468. Here is the Complaint. It is assigned to Magistrate Karen Frink Wolf. Magistrates are not appointed by presidents.
On September 17, U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper, an Obama appointee, issued an order in State of California v Trump, which is in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, 1:25cv-10810. The order rejects President Trump’s motion to dismiss the case. The case was filed to challenge Trump’s March 2025 executive order that voters who are registering to vote must attach proof of citizenship. The order makes other changes also, such as requiring all absentee ballots to be received in the election office by election day.
Now the case will proceed to a trial.
The Missouri U.S. House redistricting bill, which was passed by the legislature earlier this month, appears to have a drafting flaw. Precinct KC 811 is in both the Fourth District and the Fifth District. Governor Mike Kehoe says there are two different precincts with the designation KC 811. But even still, there is no way to know which precinct with that name is in each district. See this story.
This may be why Governor Kehoe still hasn’t signed the bill, HB 1, even though it was sent to him on September 12.
