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MP&M Blog

Parental Gender at Heart of Supreme Court Citizenship Case

The question the Supreme Court will consider on November 9, 2016, is whether it is a violation of the United States Constitution for the citizenship of a child born to unmarried parents to differ based on the gender of a parent. As it stands now, U.S. law makes it more difficult for children of U.S. citizen fathers than children of U.S. citizen mothers to obtain derivative citizenship when the child is born abroad. The Supreme Court will decide whether this is constitutional.

Ranked Choice Voting and What It Means

This November, Mainers will have the opportunity to vote whether to adopt what is known as “ranked choice voting.” Question 5 on the ballot reads as follows: “Do you want to allow voters to rank their choices of candidates in elections for U.S. Senate, Congress, Governor, State Senate, and State Representative, and to have ballots counted at the state level in multiple rounds in which last-place candidates are eliminated until a candidate wins by majority?” If adopted by Maine voters, this new law would, in theory, prevent a situation in which a candidate wins a state election with less than a majority of the vote. For example,