Fast Facts for July 1, 2021
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of states imposing specific voting laws that some say protect against voter fraud and other say are discriminatory against minorities.
Today’s 6-3 vote proved the court’s conservative majority… and said two provisions of an Arizona voting law that restricted how ballots were allowed to be cast did not violate the 1965 Voting Rights Act. This ruling could also make it more difficult for other groups to challenge and win against any new voting laws in the future.
The Arizona laws in this case have been on the books for years prior to the 2020 election and mirror other similar laws across the country. One of the laws allows ballots of those who vote in the wrong precinct to be thrown out and the other restricts who may collect ballots cast early and deliver them to polling places.
The justices ruled today – those laws were legal saying states have a legitimate interest in passing voting laws in an effort to prevent fraud.
In the dissenting opinion, the liberal justices accused the conservative justices of “writing its own set of rules.” And said this decision weakened the voting rights act from “multiple directions.”
This is the most significant voting case to come before the high court since 2013.
Read the SCOTUS ruling here.
PLUS
See this passport?? Things are changing.
The State Department has made a major announcement about official gender markers.
Starting right now, you can self-select your gender as “M” of “F” on your passport even if those markers don’t match any of your other government identifying documents. The government will no longer require medical certification of the applicant’s gender.
And pretty soon, you will also be able to select, non-binary, intersex and gender non-conforming persons on your passport.
There is no timeframe for that to happen. The state department says it’ll take extensive time to complete because it’s technologically complex and all the systems will need updating.
The Department of State says, at the direction of President Biden, the government is “committed to promoting the freedom, dignity, and equality of all people including LGBTQI+ persons.”
If you want to change your passport gender to either “M” or “F” you can go to travel.state.gov and then look under U.S. passports then need a passport then selecting your gender marker.
Read the statement from the Secretary of State here.
Change your passport gender here.
