U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied without explanation an emergency request to put the debt relief plan on hold in a separate challenge brought by the Wisconsin-based Brown County Taxpayers Association. About an hour later, U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey in St. Louis ruled that while the six Republican-led states had raised “important and significant challenges to the debt relief plan,” he threw out their lawsuit on grounds they lacked the necessary legal standing to pursue the case. Then 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay barring the discharge of any student debt under the program until the court rules on the states’ request for a longer-term injunction while Thursday’s decision against them is appealed.

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Ohio’s top Republicans – Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp, of Lima; Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, also of Lima; Republican state Sen. Rob McColley, of Napoleon; and Republican state Rep. Jeff LaRe, of Violet Township, Fairfield County, who assumed Cupp’s and Huffman’s positions on the redistricting commission earlier this year after Cupp and Huffman stepped away from the process – announced they are appealing the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision ruling the state’s congressional map unconstitutional to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ohio Republicans – including Governor Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Auditor Keith Faber who were also members of the commission – have literally ignored the Ohio Supreme Court’s numerous orders that all maps submitted were unconstitutional.

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Several recent polls show a statistical dead heat between Congressman Tim Ryan and J.D. Vance: Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) is leading Republican J.D. Vance by 3 percentage points, according to a new Spectrum News-Siena College poll. 46% of likely Ohio voters indicated support for Ryan, compared to 43% who said they would vote for Vance, a gap within the poll’s margin of error with 9% said they didn’t know or had no opinion. A Marist College poll shows Vance up on Ryan 46% – 45% with a 3.6% margin of error. The same Marist College poll shows Vance up on Ryan 48% – 47% among voters who plan to definitely vote. The poll also showed Ohioans have a 40% favorable view of Ryan, 25% have an unfavorable view with 35% not sure compared to 30% having a favorable view of Vance, 36% unfavorable view and 34% unsure. Ryan leads 42% – 40% among unaffiliated voters.

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Following knock-down, drag-out fights over congressional and legislative maps, Republican lawmakers are turning their attention to redrawing the state’s appellate court district lines − either this year or next legislative session.

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Our core freedoms are a stake – and the November elections will shape the future of our state. All Ohioans must vote like their rights depend on it – because they do. The ACLU of Ohio has created a candidate profile, the first-of-its-kind, for the Ohio Supreme Court races.

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