June is a wonderful month: Summer is in full swing, but the heat is not quite at August-level oppressiveness. Cities are abuzz with festivals, concerts, and community barbecues. A Transformers movie is likely hitting theaters. But in 2017, June is oozing with another fun summer treat: elections. From Georgia to Britain, California to France, here is your guide to the elections to pay attention to next month.

Special Election: California

On June 6, California’s 34th District will hold a special election to replace the seat left vacant by Xavier Becerra, a Democrat selected as California’s first Latino attorney general last December. A Democratic stronghold–only nine percent of registered voters are Republican–the race for the 34th features two Democrats in a head-to-head runoff: Jimmy Gomez and Robert Lee Ahn. Gomez, a former state assemblyman, has picked up some weighty endorsements, including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

General Election: Britain

Prime Minister Theresa May stunned the U.K. last month when she announced an early election set for June 8, contradicting a previous promise to wait before doing so. Many suspect her motivation in calling a snap election is to fill parliament with members of her Conservative Party, giving May a wider mandate in the upcoming Brexit negotiations, which are expected to unfold over two years. Recent polls suggest that the once-commanding Conservative lead is tightening; the Labor Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, looks like it will do a bit better than initially expected.

Parliamentary Elections: France

France made history earlier this month when it elected its youngest ever president, the 39-year-old Emmanuel Macron. But his centrist ideology, rare in the ultra-polarized politics of France, will face a daunting task in the two-round parliamentary elections in mid-June. With the first round on June 11 and the second on June 18, the elections will determine the governing leverage Macron and his En Marche! party will have in fixing the social and economic frustrations that nearly propelled populist Marine Le Pen to power.

Special Election: Georgia

Since Donald Trump was elected president last November, and Republicans in Congress held their majorities in the House and Senate, Democrats have been grasping for a ray of sunshine. Many have looked to the Democratic candidate for Georgia’s Sixth District for that harbinger of hope: Jon Ossoff. The 30-year-old nearly won the election’s first-round outright in April; he narrowly missed winning 50 percent of the vote. This is a race to fill the vacant seat left by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. The final round, held on June 20, will pit Ossoff against Republican Karen Handel.

Special Election: South Carolina

As Mick Mulvaney, the Office of Management and Budget director, helps Trump gut a number of federal programs in Washington, his vacant congressional seat is being wrangled over in South Carolina’s Fifth District. Taking place on the same day as Georgia’s special election, June 20, Democrat Archie Parnell and Republican Ralph Norman will battle for Mulvaney’s vacant seat. According to one recent poll, Norman, a longtime South Carolina legislator, is leading with 53 percent of respondents saying they would select him over Parnell.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post From California to France: Five Elections to Look Out for in June appeared first on Law Street.

Welcome to RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through today’s top five controversial stories in the world of law and policy. Who’s ranting and raving right now? Check it out below:

All Eyes on Georgia’s Sixth

Today, the Sixth Congressional District of Georgia is holding a special election to fill the House seat that became vacant when Tom Price left to become the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Although the state is very red and most of the candidates are Republicans, 30-year-old Democratic candidate and documentary filmmaker Jon Ossoff is hoping to snag more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff. This election has been deemed the first litmus test for Donald Trump’s presidency. Many are hopeful that Ossoff can pull it off.

Georgia’s special election: Can Jon Ossoff land a knockout in Round 1?https://t.co/V1MXitS8Y0

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 18, 2017

However, Republicans have countered with Islamophobic ads featuring images of Osama bin Laden. They’ve called Ossoff untrustworthy because his production company made videos for al-Jazeera, a Qatari news organization. And over the weekend, voting machines were stolen from a Cobb County precinct manager’s car. The machines reportedly have voter information in them, but it is “hard to access.” According to the county’s Elections Director Janine Eveler, the machines could not be used to fraudulently vote. But still, all eyes are on Jon Ossoff today.

Georgia! Don’t forget tomorrow’s special election. It’s either take one hour and vote or go to a town hall every week and scream until 2018.

— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) April 17, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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On April 18, Democrats hope to flip a reliably red district in suburban Atlanta blue, in a special election for the House seat left vacant by Tom Price. Price is now the secretary of Health and Human Services. Jon Ossoff, the leading Democratic hopeful, is one of 18 candidates for Georgia’s Sixth District–most are Republicans. All will appear on the same ballot, which Ossoff, 30, hopes to exploit.

Decency. Humility. Respect. Values this campaign believes in. Values worth fighting for. https://t.co/fBvar6nbGX pic.twitter.com/P59QQ1t4dm

— Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) April 1, 2017

If the Republican vote is split among the dozen or so Republicans, Ossoff can win the election outright. To do that, he would need at least 50 percent of the vote which, in a district that has been a GOP bastion for decades, is far from guaranteed. If none of the candidates clinch the election with 50 percent of the vote, a run-off is scheduled in June for the top two vote-getters.

Republican strategists say that Ossoff’s best chance is to win outright on April 18, something they cede is possible, but they remain confident that he would lose in a run-off to whichever Republican candidate emerges from the pack. Steve Strivers, the National Republican Congressional Committee chairman, recently told Politico that he is confident enough Republican voters will turn out to stave off the surging Ossoff.

“Special elections are special, and the Democrats and some independents are excited, so we need to make sure Republicans are just as excited about voting,” he said “Our job is to make sure we keep him below 50 [percent],” Stivers added: “Then we coalesce and unite our forces around one candidate in June.”

The top candidates from both parties are pulling an uncommon number of campaign donations. Ossoff has raised more than $4 million, including over $1 million from readers of the liberal-leaning news site, the Daily Kos. The surge in donations is likely a result of the liberal resistance to President Donald Trump, which Ossoff has pledged to join if he were elected. Republicans have also raised a few million dollars to boost their field of candidates, including front-runner–and former Georgia secretary of state–Karen Handel.

While the Sixth District has been a Republican stronghold for decades, there are some signs that Ossoff, a Georgetown University graduate who currently works as a documentary filmmaker, can turn the tide blue. For one, polls show Ossoff in the lead. But perhaps more importantly, the district supported Trump over his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, by 1.5 percentage points, a far narrower victory than Republican candidates traditionally enjoy in the affluent, highly-educated district.

A Democratic victory would not have a sizable affect on the make-up of the House, as Republicans currently hold 237 seats to Democrats’ 193. Five seats are vacant, four of which are open because the representatives were tapped for posts in the Trump Administration, including Price. But as one of the first elections since Trump’s Election Day upset, Democrats could score a symbolic notch that could provide momentum for the mid-term elections in 2018.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post What You Need to Know About Jon Ossoff’s Campaign for Georgia’s Sixth appeared first on Law Street.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission issued a final notice on Tuesday to Planned Parenthood that the health services provider will be barred from receiving Medicaid funds. Planned Parenthood said 11,000 women who seek treatment in 34 clinics across the state will be affected. The ruling is set to go into effect 30 days from when it was issued, unless a federal court denies the state’s move.

The group, which receives about $4 million each year in Medicaid funding, signaled that it will pursue an injunction in federal court. President of the Planned Parenthood Federation and Planned Parenthood Action Fund Cecile Richards, called the decision a “cautionary tale for the rest of the nation,” and warned that if similar moves are made in other parts of the country, “it will be nothing less than a national health care disaster.”

Federal courts have stepped in to dismiss similar state-level rulings over the past year. Judges stopped attempts to defund clinics in Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Kansas. And earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court saved a number of abortion clinics in Texas from shutting down. But this has been a drawn-out battle between Texas and Planned Parenthood, and it’s unclear how courts will rule in this case.

In July 2015, an anti-abortion group released covertly filmed and heavily-edited videos that claimed to show Planned Parenthood officials agreeing to sell fetus parts for profit. The group has vehemently waved off the videos as heavily doctored and highly inaccurate. Tuesday’s notice cited the videos as “the basis for [Planned Parenthood’s] termination” from Medicaid. It also said the group fails to provide care “in a professionally competent, safe, legal and ethical manner.”

“Texans expect that when taxpayer dollars are granted to health care providers, it is only to those who demonstrate that the health and safety of their patients come before a profit motive that puts women at greater risk,” said a statement from the office of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican.

Planned Parenthood sued Texas in November 2015, when the state first signaled it would be cutting its access to federal money, a move that was also in response to the controversial videos released a few months prior. That case is still pending. A wider effort to defund Planned Parenthood could come early next year, when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. While he has expressed support for some of the services the group provides, Trump’s appointment for health secretary is Tom Price, a vocal opponent of Planned Parenthood.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Texas is Ending Medicaid Funding for Planned Parenthood appeared first on Law Street.

State and local governments are barred from withholding federal family-planning grants “for reasons other than its ability to provide Title X services,” according to a new rule by the Department of Health and Human Services. As President Barack Obama’s days in office are waning, so are his chances to secure federal funding for Planned Parenthood and other community health clinics. The rule will go into effect two days before Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20.

Many anticipate President-elect Trump, and a Republican-controlled Congress, will attempt to dismantle and defund abortion-providing clinics that currently receive federal money. Nearly half of Planned Parenthood-affiliated clinics do not perform abortions. Proposed in September, the rule clarifies the requirements for states when distributing federal money meant for clinics that provide family-planning services like contraception, STD treatment, cancer screenings, and abortions.

“This rule will strengthen access to essential services like cancer screenings and contraception for some of the most vulnerable patients in this country,” said Dr. Karen Scott, Chief Medical Officer of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. “Public comments showed overwhelming support for finalizing the rule, which clarifies that all organizations able to provide these services should be eligible to compete for funds.”

In 2015, according to the press release from HHS, 91 grants were distributed to nearly 4,000 clinics who provided services to more than four million patients. Current federal law dictates that no government-funds can go directly toward abortions, except in cases or rape or incest, or when the procedure would be lifesaving. But as a dozen or so Republican-led states have sought to block Planned Parenthood and other clinics from seeing any government funding, the new rule should ensure that clinics are not underfunded for political reasons.

A key question moving forward will be how the Trump administration decides to handle the new rule. For one, Trump has expressed support for Planned Parenthood, at least for its services other than abortions. But he also selected Tom Price, who has supported efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, as the next health secretary. Time will reveal the fate of the new ruling, but according to HHS, rolling it back would be a time-consuming process that would require a joint resolution from both chambers of Congress, as well as approval from the incoming president.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post HHS Rule Bars States from Withholding Federal Family-Planning Grants appeared first on Law Street.