Here are some recent legal updates.

• Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), the Republican National Committee, the Georgia Republican Party and national Republican committees appealed a district court decision blocking parts of Georgia voter suppression law Senate Bill 202.

• The New York Republican Party and other conservatives filed a lawsuit last month over the state's 2021 mail-in voting law. The groups allege that the law violates the state constitution and ask for it to be blocked for the 2024 elections.

  • Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and others moved to defend the law.

• Louisiana Republicans asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block a lower court from holding a hearing about enacting a new congressional map. The district court previously ordered the state to redraw its map to contain two majority-Black districts.

• A conservative group filed a lawsuit challenging a provision of Minnesota's Democracy for the People Act that makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly spread false information about an election. The group argues the law violates the First and 14th Amendments.

• A federal court held a hearing on former U.S. Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark's motion to remove his Fulton County election subversion case to federal court. Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows made the same request and was denied.

• A federal court in New Mexico will begin trial on Oct. 16 in a lawsuit challenging the state's ability to criminally prosecute the Voter Reference Foundation for violating state laws that protect voter data. 

Here are some recent updates in Alabama. 

• Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen (R) announced the Alabama Voter Integrity Database, an in-state database that will be used to help maintain voter registration rolls after the state left the bipartisan Election Information Registration Center.

• A local news outlet, Alabama Political Reporter, reported an apparent connection between Alabama officials involved in the drawing of the state's maps and a far-right dark money group. 

  • The news builds on a previous report by the outlet that claimed Alabama lawmakers had connections suggesting that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was open to rehearing Allen v. Milligan on its merits. 

Here’s what’s coming up tomorrow. 

• There will be oral argument before the Kentucky Supreme Court in a redistricting lawsuit that challenges Kentucky’s state House and congressional maps for partisan gerrymandering. 

• Pro-voting parties will file a response in the U.S. Supreme Court to the secretary of state’s request to pause a lower court ruling in Allen v. Milligan. 

  • Two weeks ago, a federal three-judge panel blocked Alabama's new congressional map because it does not have two majority-Black districts as required by a federal court order. Allen appealed this decision and asked the Supreme Court to pause the decision blocking the map while the appeal is ongoing. The response is due by 5 p.m. EDT. 

ICYMI, listen to our latest episode of Defending Democracy. In Friday’s episode, Marc and Paige spoke with Paloma Wu of Mississippi Center for Justice and Hannah Williams of Mississippi Votes about the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision to strike down the state’s Jim Crow-era “cruel and unusual” felony disenfranchisement law.