Daily Docket — Thursday, May 18

Here are some updates from today.

• It was a busy day in Arizona, Georgia and Texas courts! 

• • Today was the second day of a trial on the remaining claim in Kari Lake's lawsuit contesting her loss in the 2022 Arizona governor's race. Get a recap of yesterday’s courtroom shenanigans here.

• • In Georgia, a court held a hearing in a trio of lawsuits challenging the state's legislative maps for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. 

• • Over in Texas, a hearing was held in a lawsuit from a Republican candidate contesting her loss in the November 2022 election for the 189th Judicial District in Harris County.

• In this morning’s opinion drop, the U.S. Supreme Court did not release decisions in the two major voting cases of the term, Allen v. Milligan and Moore v. Harper. However, a case challenging Mississippi's Jim Crow-era felony disenfranchisement law was distributed for today’s conference, where the nine justices privately decide whether to take up appeals. Previously, the case was rescheduled for conference ten times.

• The U.S. Senate confirmed civil rights lawyer Nancy Abudu to serve on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the first Black woman to ever sit on this court. The 11th Circuit has jurisdiction over district courts in Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

Here are some court updates from yesterday.

• The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas Republican lawmakers do not have to produce documents related to the passage of Texas’ 2021 omnibus voter suppression law because of legislative privilege.

• The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard a case arguing that Indiana’s restrictive mail-in voting law violates the 26th Amendment, which forbids voting discrimination on account of age.

• Several groups asked a federal court to block provisions of Georgia’s 2021 voter suppression law that prohibits passing out food and water to voters in line, limits ballot assistance, restricts drop boxes, rejects ballots for trivial errors and more.

• Massachusetts-based voting and civil rights groups asked to intervene in a lawsuit to defend Boston City Council’s map drawn with 2020 census data. Last week, a judge ordered the council to redraw the map.

Here’s what to expect coming up.

• The latest episode of our Defending Democracy podcast drops tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. EDT — get ready! Marc sat down with former U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) to discuss the congressman’s journey to representing a diverse district in the House, the future of federal voting rights legislation, the need to update New York’s antiquated voting laws and more. Listen on Apple, Spotify or any other platform.

Can’t get enough news? You can always find more details about these updates on our News page.

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