RNLA member Brad Smith wrote last week in the Washington Examiner to remind us about how the IRS under President Obama targeted conservative organizations, delaying their applications for tax-exempt status and asking harassing and illegal questions as part of the IRS' heightened review process for organizations with names containing such dangerous words as "Patriot":

Under President Trump, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has taken steps to respect Americans' rights of religious liberty and conscience, which are protected under the First Amendment.  This is refreshing after, under President Obama, HHS was focused on advancing and defending regulations under Obamacare that infringed on Americans' important rights, including litigating several losing cases all the way to the Supreme Court.

Yesterday, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina wrote an op-ed in The Hill, describing the Democrats' obstruction of the judicial confirmation process and attempted character assassination against one of President Trump's nominees, Thomas Farr, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina:

The past few weeks have been very busy for redistricting litigation.  Here is the status of some of the current cases:

Last Wednesday, January 10th, U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler of the Northern District of Alabama dismissed a lawsuit brought against the Alabama Secretary of State in an attempt to block a recently passed voter ID law.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in a case on voter registration list maintenance, Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute.  At issue is Ohio's procedure for removing voters from the voter registration list:

Last spring, the RNLA was thrilled to have Federal Election Commissioner (FEC) Lee Goodman speak on a panel at the 2017 National Policy Conference at the National Press Club.  The panel, titled, "Election Law Update: Vote Fraud Commission and Campaign Finance"featured Commissioner Goodman, Don Palmer, formerly of the Virginia Board of Elections, and Hans von Spakovsky, of the Heritage foundation.

Ed Whelan writes about President Trump's superb judicial nominees during his first year in office in the January issue of National Review:

After 35 years, the consent decree that prohibited the Republican National Committee (RNC) from engaging in ballot security activities wasterminated by a federal judge.  RNLA Chair John Ryder, former General Counsel to the RNC, stated:

The @alt_fec Twitter account is run by self-proclaimed FEC employees who are experts in campaign finance law.  But they managed to mis-state First Amendment law three times in one Tweet attacking the Institute for Free Speech and requesting IFS' "views on the First Amendment implications of a letter from a private attorney to a private publisher concerning Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House."  IFS accepted the invitation to analyze the letter under relevant First Amendment law (footnotes omitted):