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Arizona and North Dakota Voters Reject Efforts to Curb Direct Democracy
Lawmakers asked voters to surrender some of their power to place issues directly on state ballots. Voters refused.
Wisconsin Justices Appear Hostile to 175-Year-Old Abortion Law
The dispute over whether the 1849 law bans nearly all abortions in the state is a sign of a “world gone mad,” one justice said.
Republican National Committee v. Eternal Vigilance Action, Inc
The Georgia Supreme Court left in place a lower court ruling that several controversial new election rules are “illegal, unconstitutional, and void.” The rules would have made election certification discretionary, required hand-counting the number of ballots, made drop boxes harder to use, and expanded the role of poll watchers. The appeal will proceed on a normal schedule, which means the state supreme court will fully consider the challenge against the rules over the next few months.
Cincinnati Enquirer v. Bloom
Found the blanket sealing of a juvenile’s delinquency records when the juvenile is found not delinquent — the juvenile equivalent of not guilty — unconstitutional because there was no determination that the harm to the juvenile outweighed the public’s right to access court records
Gonzalez v. Miller
Unanimously affirmed the denial of a district attorney’s effort to dismiss a state Open Records Act request relating to her office’s “failure . . . to effectively prosecute criminal cases, and an open disregard for the laws of the State of Georgia"
Paschall v. Thurston
Ruled that votes for a proposed marijuana-related amendment will not be counted because the name and ballot description for the measure are misleading
Center for Coalfield Justice v. Washington County Board of Elections
Will consider the constitutionality of a policy instituted by the election board for Washington County before the 2024 primary elections that caused all mail-in ballots received to be entered into the statewide system as simply “returned,” meaning voters whose ballots were disqualified received no notification that their vote wouldn’t count, leaving them unable to contest the decision or know to cast a provisional ballot.
Genser v. Butler County Board of Elections
Held citizens whose mail-in ballots were disqualified for a failure to return them in the required secrecy envelope have a right to cast a provisional ballot and have it count.
Commonwealth v. Govan
Will consider whether law enforcement use of location data obtained from a GPS monitoring device required to be worn by a pretrial releasee to investigate a new unrelated crime violates that individual's right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures under the Massachusetts or federal constitution.
What We Learned From State Ballot Measures
The results of 2024's state ballot measures reveal mixed voter opinions on abortion, workers’ rights, and direct democracy.