While the number of major sporting events roiled by Georgia's voting law looks to hold steady, now that it's expanded to two, the number of lawsuits to reverse the new restrictions keeps steadily growing.
The Masters got underway Thursday, but not before the Augusta National Golf Club's reputation as proudly insulated from modernity got rattled by the large number of golfers and the club's own chairman speaking out about the biggest civil rights story of the year.
At the same time, civic engagement groups that sent millions of absentee ballot applications to Georgians last year sued to block provisions of the law they alleged would unconstitutionally curtail such outreach. It was the fifth such federal suit filed in the two weeks since Gov. Brian Kemp signed the measure, and more are in the works.
The Republicans in charge of the state government, starting with the governor, have vowed to stand by the law — repudiating those in the business and sports worlds who have protested it and committing to fight all such litigation vigorously.
And they have recently notched a considerable courthouse victory.
A federal judge last week dismissed many of the claims in what had been the most prominent voting rights lawsuit against the state before last month: Fair Fight, a voting organization founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams following her loss to Kemp in the 2018 governor's race, alleged that a raft of laws already on the books in 2018 amounted to unconstitutional voter suppression.
The decision was little-noticed while attention was focused on Major League Baseball moving this summer's All-Star Game out of Atlanta to protest the new law, and then on how the denouncements by major Georgia employers Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines prompted Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell to urge corporations to "stay out of politics" except for keeping their contributions flowing.
District Judge Steve Jones tossed Fair Fight's challenge to the state's "use it or lose it" law, which cancels the registrations of people who don't vote for several years. He also dismissed complaints that too few voting machines are routinely assigned to majority-Black precincts, poll worker training is slipshod and standards for rejecting completed ballots are too strict.
The most prominent challenge he allowed to go to trial argues against the law requiring an exact match between the information on registration forms and what's in state databases, down to using a nickname or dropping a middle initial. This policy prompted 53,000 people to have their applications rejected in 2018.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday challenges a provision in the new law that says independent groups may only send vote-by-mail applications to Georgians who have not already requested a ballot or voted.
Lawmakers say the purpose is to avoid a repeat of last fall, when voters claimed confusion from the multitude of applications arriving from get-out-the-vote groups — even after they'd already put in a request to vote absentee. The lead plaintiffs, the Voter Participation Center and the Center for Voter Information, say their First Amendment rights are about to get trampled.
The four other lawsuits filed against the new measure challenge its limits on drop boxes, new ID requirements for absentee voters, ballot request deadlines and a ban on volunteers handing out food and water to voters waiting in line.
Augusta Chairman Fred Ridley, delivering his annual "State of the Masters'' address on Monday, broke with tradition by commenting on non-golf headlines, saying calls for a Masters boycott would be counterproductive before not quite explicitly repudiating the new law.
"I believe, as does everyone in our organization, that the right to vote is fundamental in our democratic society," Ridley said. "No one should be disadvantaged in exercising that right, and it is critical that all citizens have confidence in the electoral process."
The last line appears to be a nod to the stated rationale of Republicans in the General Assembly. While critics of the new rules say they are a craven response to the disproved conspiracy theories of former President Donald Trump (the first GOP nominee to lose the state in 28 years), its sponsors assert they have both bolstered election integrity and made it easier to vote in Georgia than before — mainly by expanding the timetable for early in-person balloting.
Many of the golfers participating in the Masters, asked about the law and voting equality, expressed support for strong voting rights without condemning the statute.
"I'm all for getting people to get out and vote and to have a great democracy, and I've chosen to live in this country because I believe this country is the best country," said Rory McIlroy, who was born in Northern Ireland.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."