On August 30, the Ninth Circuit upheld a federal law that won’t permit a U.S. citizen living in Guam to vote as an absentee voter from his or her former residence inside one of the fifty states. Borja v Nago, 22-16742. Here is the opinion.

The vote was 2-1. The decision is by Judge Milan D. Smith, a Bush Jr. appointee. It is also signed by Judge lucy H. Koh, an Obama appointee. Judge Richard A. Paez, a Clinton appointee, dissented and wrote that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The lower court had also upheld the law.

A quirk of federal law lets U.S. citizens who live in foreign countries vote, assuming they had in the past lived in one of the fifty states. They are absentee voters in the last state in which they had lived, even if they hadn’t lived in the U.S. for decades. An even stranger quirk lets U.S. citizens who live in the Northern Mariana Islands do the same.

The Ninth Circuit frequently grants rehearings en banc, and this case has a fair chance of getting a rehearing.

On August 30, the Kansas Secretary of State said that the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. petition has enough valid signatures. No one else used the Kansas independent procedure for president this year. The qualified parties are Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, No Labels, and United Kansas, but the latter two parties aren’t running anyone for president.

Arkansas has always had open primaries since primaries first began early in the 20th century. However, on June 8, 2024, the state Republican convention voted to close Republican primaries, so that only registered Republicans can vote. However, the state chair and the state executive committee of the Republican Party then took the position that the convention action is void, because proper notice hadn’t been given in advance of the convention about that vote.

On August 26, some Republican state convention delegates sued the party’s State Chair and State Executive Committee in federal court, to force those officers to accept the decision of the state convention. The lawsuit also sues the Secretary of State. Lancaster v Thurston, e.d., 2:24cv-161.

Here is the Complaint, which attaches the party rules to establish that the state convention is the ultimate authority in party governance.