Category: Federal
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U.S. Election Assistance Commission set to retire current voting system standards, transition to updated certification guidelines
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), an independent and bipartisan commission established by the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), will retire the standards currently used to test and federally certify voting equipment, known as Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) versions 1.0 and 1.1, on November 16, 2023. A new version of the VVSG, version…
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Federal Register weekly update: 60 final rules added
The Federal Register is a daily journal of federal government activity that includes presidential documents, proposed and final rules, and public notices. It is a common measure of an administration’s regulatory activity, accounting for both regulatory and deregulatory actions. From June 26, 2023, through June 30, 2023, the Federal Register grew by 1,298 pages for…
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House Republican introduces bill opposing ESG in retirement funds
Congressman Andy Barr (R-Ky.) introduced a bill on June 21 opposing the Biden Labor Department’s rule allowing the use of ESG in retirement plan investments. Both chambers recently passed a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution overturning the Labor Department rule, but President Joe Biden (D) vetoed that legislation. Congressman Barr introduced the new bill in…
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U.S. Supreme Court lifts stay on district court ruling that overturned Louisiana’s congressional boundaries
The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin’s (R) appeal on June 26 of a federal district court ruling that held that Louisiana’s congressional district map should include an additional majority-minority district. The Supreme Court also lifted its 2022 stay of the federal court’s decision and allowed the case to proceed before…
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Ballotpedia identifies 17 noteworthy Supreme Court cases regarding redistricting from 1946 to 2023
Ballotpedia has identified 17 noteworthy redistricting cases that the Supreme Court has heard since 1946, and the court issued two such rulings this month. In a 5-4 decision in Allen v. Milligan on June 8, SCOTUS affirmed the judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama that the state’s congressional…
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U.S. Supreme Court affirms state court authority to overturn congressional district boundaries in Moore v. Harper
On June 27, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Moore v. Harper that the North Carolina Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the state’s congressional district boundaries did not conflict with the Elections Clause in the U.S. Constitution. Although the state supreme court subsequently reversed its decision, SCOTUS upheld the state court’s authority to decide…
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Trump leads in 2024 Republican presidential primary RealClearPolitics polling average and PredictIt market
As of June 26, 2023, former President Donald Trump (R) holds a lead in both RealClearPolitics’ (RCP) Republican presidential primary polling average and PredictIt’s Republican presidential primary market. Trump’s polling average currently stands at 52%, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) at 22%. No other candidate has more than a 10% polling average. In…
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Number of special elections to each meeting of Congress has increased since 1993
The number of special elections to each meeting of Congress has steadily increased over the past twenty years, from an average of 7.6 special elections in the five meetings beginning in 1993, to 11.6 in the five meetings starting in 2003, and to 13.4 in the five meetings that began in 2013 and ended in…
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U.S. weekly unemployment insurance claims unchanged at 264,000
New applications for U.S. unemployment insurance benefits for the week ending June 17 were unchanged from the previous week’s revised number at 264,000. The four-week moving average as of June 17 increased 8,500 from the previous week’s revised number to 255,750. The average is the highest since November 13, 2021. The number of continuing unemployment…
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Ballotpedia identifies 17 noteworthy Supreme Court cases regarding redistricting from 1946 to 2023
Ballotpedia has identified 17 noteworthy redistricting cases that the Supreme Court has heard since 1946, with the most recent one being Allen v. Milligan. In a 5-4 decision on June 8, SCOTUS affirmed the judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama that the state’s congressional redistricting plan adopted in…