This article was originally published in Public News Service. 

The Volunteer State ranks poorly in the U.S. for its overall lack of voter participation. Over the last decade, critics say the poor turnout is partly a result of regular purges of the voter rolls, new registration requirements, and the state's restrictive voting laws that create unnecessary barriers. Ballots are already being cast for the upcoming August 4 primary - and Debby Gould, president of the League of Women Voters of Tennessee, said so far, the early voting turnout is low.

On June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court released its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning the constitutional right to abortion. In so doing, they turned back the clock, looking almost exclusively at reproductive rights from the lens of the mid-1800s and earlier to determine whether the Constitution confers a right to abortion.

CUPERTINO, CA — Today, the League of Women Voters of Cupertino-Sunnyvale filed a federal lawsuit challenging the city’s anti-nonprofit speech ordinance, which requires nonprofit organizations to register as lobbyists. Organizations that fail to register risk being penalized. The League asserts the ordinance’s definition of “lobbyist” is too vague and chills voter engagement by harming voter service organizations.  

LWV of Kansas and partners appealed the Kansas Court of Appeals’ decision in League of Women Voters v. Schwab, which held that members of the Plaintiffs’ organizations do not have standing to challenge the unconstitutionality of this voter suppression law because they have not yet suffered an injury.