Today, the US Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that Louisiana put too much emphasis on race in drawing a US House districts map that included a second Majority Minority district. The decision has national implications and is thought to further weaken the Voting Rights Act. Here is the Opinion in Louisiana v Callais, 24-109.

Here is a story from CBS News.

Here is an analysis from Rick Hasen, election law professor and founder of the ElectionLawBlog.

As a result of this decision and some other decisions, we now have a national interpretation that it is constitutional for state legislatures to favor one particular party when they draw districts. Yet it is unconstitutional for legislatures to draw districts to enable racial and ethnic minorities to win a number of seats in proportion to their share of the electorate.

North Dakota Representative Liz Conmy (D-Fargo) was killed in a plane crash on April 25. She was running for re-election in the June primary. It is too late to remove her name from the ballot, but it is expected that write-in candidates will file in the primary. See this story.

On April 27, Butch Ware, the Green Party candidate for Governor of California, filed a federal lawsuit against the California law that requires gubernatorial candidates to furnish the last five years of their income tax returns. The Complaint also charges that the law was enforced in a discriminatory manner this year. Ware v Weber, e.d., 2:26cv-1643. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Magistrate Sean C. Riordan. Here is the Complaint.

UPDATE: the Magisrate has asked that the case be assigned to a U.S. District Court Judge, and it has been reassigned to U.S. District Court Judge William B. Shubb, a Bush Sr. appointee.