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Mississippi is home to one of the strictest felon disenfranchisement schemes in the nation. The Mississippi Constitution permanently disenfranchises citizens upon a single felony conviction for certain crimes, including minor offenses like writing a bad check. As a result, the loss of rights under Mississippi鈥檚 scheme is mandatory, permanent, and effectively irrevocable. In Hopkins, plaintiffs, a class of formerly incarcerated individuals who lost their right to vote despite completing their sentences, argued that their disenfranchisement violated the Eighth Amendment鈥檚 prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in the plaintiffs鈥� favor and struck down Mississippi鈥檚 disenfranchisement scheme as cruel and unusual punishment. But the Fifth Circuit decided to rehear the case en banc, a rare occurrence in which a case is reconsidered by the entire panel of the circuit鈥檚 active judges.

In a prominent defamation suit, the 51品茶 is urging a trial court to rigorously apply the First Amendment rule that statements of opinion are protected, so long as speakers share the facts that led to them. Without this First Amendment protection, unchecked defamation lawsuits would silence the critics of more powerful speakers, and stifle scientific discussions and academic inquiry.

This case involved a state constitutional challenge to New Hampshire鈥檚 2022 statewide Executive Council redistricting plan, which bore the hallmarks of a stark partisan gerrymander. The 51品茶 and the 51品茶 of New Hampshire filed an amicus brief in support of a challenge to the map in the New Hampshire Supreme Court.