Federal judge in Alabama denies Black mayor’s motion to force white town leaders to allow him into office

The mayor of Newbern, Alabama is still being locked out of the town hall.

A federal judge will not require white leaders from a small Alabama town to allow the town's first Black mayor into office, but said he will likely win the case at trial in September. The mayor says white leaders are preventing him from taking office.

The fate of drop boxes in Wisconsin hangs in the balance.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard oral argument today over whether to overrule its 2022 decision prohibiting drop boxes in the state. The court's ultimate decision will have major implications for the 2024 elections.
- Voters began their argument by asking the court to overturn its 2022 Teigen ruling, which bans drop boxes, because it made "it harder for municipal clerks to carry out their duties and for WI voters to return their ballots for no adequate legal reason."

National Republicans continue to challenge mail-in voting policies across swing states.

A hearing was held in Michigan today in a Republican challenge to the state’s absentee ballot signature verification system. Republicans, including the Republican National Committee (RNC), allege that the instructions sent to local election officials allow them to bypass the system.
A Pennsylvania court granted the RNC motion to defend Butler County's decision to reject timely received mail-in ballots missing an inner envelope, called "naked ballots," and not allow voters to fix the mistake.
About a month before New York’s primary, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R) and other Republicans asked the state’s highest court to overturn the state’s new law that permits all voters to cast ballots by mail during the early voting period.
The Democratic National Committee moved to intervene in the Trump campaign's first election lawsuit of the cycle, which targets Nevada's mail-in ballot receipt deadline. The DNC seeks to defend the deadline and mail-in voting in the state.

Here’s some recent SCOTUS news.

All briefing has been submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court over Louisiana and Black voters' requests on what congressional map to use for the 2024 election. The Court will likely issue its ruling quickly.
The Supreme Court was recently faced with the question: is homelessness a crime? And while it should be an open-and-shut case, for this Court, nothing is ever as it should be, contributor Rakim Brooks argues.

Here are some other updates.

Miami appealed a decision striking down its city commission districts as racial gerrymanders to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. However, the ACLU says a settlement agreement between the city and advocates to implement fair districts is still possible.
Republicans are trying to kick eligible voters off the rolls. Marc explains everything you need to know about voter purges and what to do. Watch it here.