* Wyoming…

On the first of this month, Wyoming residents began facing some of the nation’s harshest rules when registering to vote, and additional barriers may still be coming.

Wyoming became the second state to require that all would-be voters provide physical documentation of their citizenship to vote in any election, as conservatives step up their nationwide push for policies to bar noncitizens from voter rolls, despite a lack of evidence this is a meaningful problem. […]

The reform, House Bill 156, was adopted into law by the GOP-led legislature in March. But it is the brainchild of Secretary of State Chuck Gray, a Republican who became Wyoming’s chief election official in 2022 after campaigning on accusations that the nation’s elections are “rigged” and amplifying Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential race was stolen from him due to large numbers of noncitizens voting illegally. […]

Critics of the law stress that women will be disproportionately affected by these restrictions; they may have changed their name due to marriage since they were issued these documents. Some voters in New Hampshire in March experienced difficulties voting due to a mismatch between their married name and their birth certificate, and legal experts in relation to the SAVE Act, a federal bill that passed the U.S. House in March that would impose proof-of-citizenship laws nationwide.

* Arkansas…

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Arkansas can enforce its ban on critical race theory in classrooms, ruling the First Amendment doesn’t give students the right to compel the state to offer its instruction in public schools.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a preliminary injunction issued against the ban, one of several changes adopted under an education overhaul that Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed in 2023. […]

“Just as ordinary citizens cannot require the government to express a certain viewpoint or maintain a prior message, students cannot oblige the government to maintain a particular curriculum or offer certain materials in that curriculum based on the Free Speech Clause,” the judges ruled. […]

The judges said they weren’t minimizing the students’ concerns “whether in this case or in the abstract — about a government that decides to exercise its discretion over the public school curriculum by prioritizing ideological interests over educational ones.”

“But the Constitution does not give courts the power to block government action based on mere policy disagreements,” the court said.

* The Atlantic…

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent a lot of his time as health secretary on the road. Late last month, he spoke at an event in Baton Rouge and lamented how Americans have gotten sicker and sicker over the years. “When my uncle was president, I was a 10-year-old boy—we had the healthiest children in the world,” he said, flanked by supporters in green MAHA Louisiana hats. The day before, Kennedy gave a near-identical speech in Oklahoma City, this time surrounded by people holding signs that read OK ❤️ RFK Jr. and Make Oklahoma Healthy Again.

Kennedy traveled to both states to celebrate their efforts to take up his MAHA agenda. In Oklahoma, RFK Jr. joined the signing of a pair of orders that will begin the process of pulling fluoride from the state’s water supply and blocking the purchase of soda using food stamps. In Louisiana, the health secretary was there when the state enacted a bill that forces food companies to put warnings on their products if they contain certain artificial food dyes, preservatives, or dozens of other additives. These were just two stops on a nationwide tour that has also taken RFK Jr. to several other states—including Arizona, Utah, and West Virginia—that are pushing forward with his ideas, especially on food. In some cases, Kennedy has cheered from afar: “Texas is leading the way,” he posted on X last month, after the Lone Star State passed its own MAHA-style bill similar to Louisiana’s.

Though RFK Jr. has the power to enact monumental change, much of MAHA’s actual successes at reforming the American diet haven’t come from Washington. While states pass law after law cracking down on food, Kennedy’s own biggest action to date has been relatively modest: a campaign pressuring food companies to voluntarily remove synthetic food dyes from their products. The states are out-MAHAing the MAHA king, much to his pleasure.

To some degree, RFK Jr. was always going to need help from the states. Although he has repeatedly called for a ban on purchasing soda using food stamps, the health secretary can’t make it happen without action from states such as Oklahoma. State legislators started introducing various MAHA bills right as Kennedy was being confirmed to his position. In March, Kennedy visited West Virginia when it became one of the first states to pass such a bill into law, banning seven artificial dyes from being served in schools. The laws in Louisiana and Texas are far more sweeping, among the most stringent food policies that have been passed by states in recent memory. In Texas, a range of products that include common food additives will have to specify on the package that they are “not recommended for human consumption by the appropriate authority in Australia, Canada, the European Union, or the United Kingdom.” Louisiana has a similar warning-label rule, and mandates that any restaurant serving food cooked in seed oils has to display a disclaimer in the store.

* Utah…

When Utah lawmakers took away the ability of communities to fluoridate their drinking water this year, they legalized an alternative: to let Utah pharmacists sell fluoride supplements without a prescription.

Now the federal Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to ban those supplements for children — because, according to an FDA news release from May, those products could alter the beneficial microorganisms in the human gut.

However, Dr. James Bekker, a pediatric dentist from Utah, argues that the FDA’s current conclusions are based on faulty studies. What’s more, appropriate doses of ingestible fluoride are not just safe, but can provide kids with benefits they wouldn’t get through topical fluoride alone. […]

Besides taking the choice out of the hands of Utah parents, Bekker said such a ban would likely lead to other consequences: More cavities, higher overall healthcare costs and more children receiving oral care under general anesthetic in a hospital setting.

* Texas…

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is pushing Texas Republicans to redraw the state’s congressional maps to create more House seats favorable to his party, part of a broader effort to help the GOP retain control of the chamber in next year’s midterm elections.

The president’s directive signals part of the strategy Trump is likely to take to avoid a repeat of his first term, when Democrats flipped the House just two years into his presidency. It comes shortly before the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature is scheduled to begin a special session next week during which it will consider new congressional maps to further marginalize Democrats in the state. […]

Some Texas Republicans have been hesitant about redrawing the maps because there’s only so many new seats a party can grab before its incumbents are put at risk. Republicans gain new seats by relocating Democratic voters out of competitive areas and into other GOP-leaning ones, which may then turn competitive with the influx.

“There comes the point where you slice the baloney too thin and it backfires,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Maybe Illinois could join in?…

* Idaho…

Idaho residents should be prepared to pay up if they’re caught with marijuana, even a small amount, after a new law mandated a minimum fine for anyone in possession of the substance. The law took effect July 1 and compels judges to implement the $300 fine on anyone with less than 3 ounces of marijuana in their possession.

While having more than 3 ounces of pot is a felony, the smaller amount falls under a more general part of Idaho drug law that classifies possession of a Schedule I drug as a misdemeanor. Judges previously had the discretion to instate any fine up to $1,000 for misdemeanor marijuana possession. They could also essentially waive the fine, aside from court costs.

That is no longer an option. […]

[Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa] said that like raising the price of a traffic ticket, the purpose of the bill is to deter recreational marijuana use, which is legal for recreational use in all but two of Idaho’s six border states — Utah, where medicinal use is legal, and Wyoming, where the drug is illegal.

* Texas…

Texas lawmakers will convene next week for a special session to consider legislation addressing the deadly floods that devastated parts of the state earlier this month — and a bill regarding which restrooms transgender Texans can use.

When Gov. Greg Abbott initially called for a special session in June, it was to tackle six bills he had vetoed during the regular session, among them a contentious measure that would have banned hemp products containing THC. But after flash floods overwhelmed parts of central Texas on July 4 — resulting in at least 120 deaths with many more still missing — the intended focus shifted to flood relief.

However, when the governor’s 18-point agenda was released last week, it included far more than flood-related measures. In addition to considering bills that would restrict hemp products, Abbott has also asked lawmakers to consider legislation “further protecting unborn children and their mothers from the harm of abortion” and legislation “protecting women’s privacy in sex-segregated spaces.”

On Monday, the first day lawmakers were able to file bills for the special session, none of the 82 measures filed mentioned the deadly July 4 floods, according to KXAN-TV, NBC’s Austin affiliate.