On November 9 a federal appeals court ruled that the government can not fund a building where both secular and religious activities occur, even if it is in the interest of supporting secular work that assists the community. The case Community House Inc. v. the City of Boise involves a secular nonprofit, Community House, which ran a homeless shelter in the city-owned building. A Christian nonprofit, Bosie Rescue Mission was then selected to run the shelter planning to change the facility to be for men only and requiring all residents to attend religious services.

It has been reported that it may be more likely in the upcoming 110th Congress for changes in lobbying and ethics rules. According to BNA (subscription required) on November 9, six reform groups, the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, League of Women Voters, Public Citizen, and U.S. PIRG held a press conference commending Pelosi's promise to quickly take up ethics and lobbying reforms. Exit polls reveal that scandals were a major issue in the election, opening up opportunity to bring up such legislation.

Common Cause has released GETTING IT STRAIGHT: A Preliminary Look at Data Collected from Voters During the Elections of 2006. This report summarizes the information that was called in to the voter assistance hotline 866-MYVOTE-1. As noted, the problems highlight that there are still serious flaws in our voting system.

A day before the election Americans United for Separation of Church and State asked the IRS to investigate four churches because of their political activities. Two of the cases involve Republicans and two Democrats. Bethel AME Church in Cambridge, Maryland hosted a rally for gubernatorial candidate O'Malley, of which AU considers was a partisan rally. Lakeview Assembly of God in Hot Springs, Arkansas advertised in the local newspaper the appearance of gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson, while the opponent was not included in the program.