Biden calls for reforms to U.S. Supreme Court
In a new op-ed for the Washington Post, President Joe Biden called for major reforms to the Court.
Biden’s proposals echo the current effort in Congress to reform SCOTUS, which include term limits for justices, a binding code of ethics and a constitutional amendment to limit presidential immunity.
Though Biden does not have the unilateral authority to make such reforms, this op-ed reflects his most direct push to date for reforming SCOTUS.
Meanwhile, Mark Meadows wants SCOTUS to intervene in his Georgia election interference case
Meadows’ lawyers filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the nation’s highest Court asking that his case be moved to federal court. It’s not the first time. In December of 2023, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his request to move his case out of Georgia into a federal court.
In his latest petition, Meadows’ lawyers cite SCOTUS’s recent controversial ruling on presidential immunity as the reason his case should be in federal court, arguing that the ruling “makes clear that federal immunity fully protects former officers” and not just a former president.
Wins for voters in Mississippi and Wisconsin
A federal judge rejected an RNC lawsuit that challenged Mississippi’s mail-in ballot receipt deadline. The law, enacted in 2020, allows all mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day but received by election offices up to 5 days later to be counted.
And in Wisconsin, a judge rejected a right-wing lawsuit that sought to upend certain aspects of the state’s absentee voting process.
Louisiana’s new voter suppression laws will remain in place for the election
A federal judge rejected a disability rights group’s lawsuit to block Louisiana’s new laws, which restrict who can serve as a witness and help deliver an absentee ballot.
The lawsuit, which was filed earlier this month by Disability Rights Louisiana (DRLA), argued that the new statutes could disenfranchise absentee voters with disabilities.
Though litigation is ongoing, because it’s too close to the election, the district court denied DRLA’s motion for preliminary injunction.
ACLU suing Nebraska for refusing to let people with felony convictions vote
The lawsuit, filed directly to the Nebraska Supreme Court, seeks to compel the secretary of state and several elections commissioners to comply with a new state law that lets a person register to vote after they complete their sentence for a felony conviction. Under previous law, they would have to wait two years after completing their sentence to register to vote.
The lawsuit comes after Nebraska’s attorney general issued an opinion earlier this month that the new law is unconstitutional. The law passed in April without the governor’s signature.
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