To prepare you for the month ahead, we’ve outlined what courtroom activity and fillings we anticipate as well as what outstanding decisions we are watching for. Scroll on for today's updates.

Here’s what to expect in the courts this month.

• Dec. 4, 2023: Hearing on a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit challenging Arkansas’ congressional map. 

• Dec. 6, 2023: 

  • Oral argument in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a fringe lawsuit challenging Oregon’s use of electronic voting machines and its mail-in voting laws. 

  • Oral argument in the 5th U.S. Circuit court of Appeals over a legislative privilege dispute in a lawsuit challenging Texas’ omnibus 2021 voter suppression law, Senate Bill 1. 

  • Oral argument in the Colorado Supreme Court regarding an appeal of a decision allowing former President Donald Trump to appear on the state’s primary ballot. 

• Dec. 8, 2023: 

  • Deadline for the Georgia Legislature to enact new congressional and legislative maps as a result of lawsuits challenging the maps under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. 

  • The U.S. Supreme Court will consider at its weekly conference whether to take up two redistricting lawsuits — one regarding Arkansas’ congressional map and the other concerning Washington State’s legislative map. 

• Dec. 14, 2023: 

  • Oral argument in a state-level lawsuit brought by Republican state legislators in Oregon challenging their disqualification from seeking reelection in 2024 due to unexcused absences. 

  • Hearing on motions for summary judgment in a right-wing state-level lawsuit challenging the use of drop boxes in Arizona. 

• Dec. 15, 2023: Oral argument in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concerning Mark Meadows’ appeal of a decision denying his request to remove his Fulton County election subversion case to federal court. 

• Dec. 19, 2023: Hearing in a federal lawsuit seeking to block provisions of Mississippi’s new anti-democratic law that create a new court in Jackson — a predominantly Black city — with a judge and two prosecutors who are appointed by white, conservative state officials.

• Dec. 27, 2023: The Washington secretary of state will submit a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in response to Republicans’ appeal of a decision dismissing their racial gerrymandering lawsuit over Washington State’s legislative maps.  

We are waiting for decisions in the following lawsuits. 

• A state-level lawsuit challenging Utah’s congressional map for being a partisan gerrymander that unfairly favors Republicans.   

• A federal lawsuit challenging a right-wing group’s mass voter challenge effort in Georgia. 

• A federal lawsuit from former Hawaii residents now residing in certain U.S. territories challenging requirements that preclude former U.S. state residents from voting absentee for president in their former state if they are currently living in Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa or Puerto Rico. 

Here are some recent updates.

• A panel of three North Carolina judges temporarily blocked the enforcement of Senate Bill 749, a new law that transfers the power to appoint board of elections members from Gov. Roy Cooper (D) to the Republican-controlled state legislature. Litigation will continue.

• The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals unpaused an order requiring Galveston County, Texas to redraw its commissioner map after a lower court and the 5th Circuit found that it violated the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Plaintiff groups plan to seek immediate redraw of the districts.

• Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin (R) rejected the titles and summaries for two dangerous proposed ballot initiatives that would effectively ban electronic voting machines and restrict absentee voting in the state.

• A federal judge extended the deadline to Jan. 30, 2024 for Louisiana to enact a new congressional map that complies with the VRA. If a new map is not enacted by the deadline, a trial will begin on Feb. 5 on the legality of the current districts.

• New York progressive groups filed a lawsuit to block the use of new voting machines ExpressVoteXL. The groups allege that the machines, approved by the state earlier this year, don't comply with state law. No locality in New York uses the devices.