2022 Election Disputes Continue to Wind Through U.S. Courts as 2024 Nears

While former Arizona GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake continues with election-related lawsuits regarding irregularities in Maricopa County, there were also other issues during the 2022 midterm elections that occurred across the country.

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Appeals Court Reverses Previous Ruling That Halted Idaho’s Abortion Ban

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overruled a lower court decision to block Idaho’s abortion ban Thursday, according to court documents.

U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Idaho B. Lynn Winmill, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, ruled in August that the law could stop doctors from referring patients to abortion clinics in other states in an emergency due to fear of prosecution. A panel of judges appointed by former President Donald Trump, however, determined that the state’s case to uphold the ban was likely to succeed and that for the time being “public interest is best served by preserving the force and effect of a duly enacted Idaho law,” according to court documents.

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Censorship Case Involving State Collusion with Social Media Companies Could Be Heard by the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court could hear a case questioning a California agency’s coordination with Twitter to censor election-related “misinformation.”

O’Handley v. Weber, which concerns the California Secretary of State’s Office of Election Cybersecurity’s work with Twitter to monitor “false or misleading” election information, was appealed to the Supreme Court on June 8. The case raises questions similar to those posed in the free speech lawsuit Missouri v. Biden, now being appealed in the Fifth Circuit: Can the government lawfully induce private actors to censor protected speech?

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SCOTUS Justice: U.S. Seeing Growing Hostility to Religious Freedom

Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said there’s a “growing hostility to religion” in a keynote address he gave highlighting the unique protection of religion in the U.S. Constitution.

“The problem that looms is not just indifference to religion, it’s not just ignorance about religion,” he said at a 2022 Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit in Rome last week.

“There’s also growing hostility to religion or at least the traditional religious beliefs that are contrary to the new moral code that is ascendant in some sectors,” he said during his 37-minute remarks released on Thursday.

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