Marshall Cohen for CNN:

After a string of early legal victories in voting rights cases, Democrats are now fighting on more challenging terrain in federal appeals courts across the country, and have seen some of their hard-fought victories wiped off the books by conservative-leaning judges.

There are hundreds of state and federal lawsuits related to the 2020 election, with cases brought by both political parties, trying to get the rules changed in their favor and rulings coming on a near-daily basis. But Democrats have celebrated a wave of early victories in some key battleground states.Many of those rulings have been appealed. Democrats now find themselves in more hostile territory, and Republicans are clawing their way back in some cases, experts say. President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans have reshaped the federal judiciary by confirming more than 200 judges since 2017, and have filled dozens of vacancies specifically on appeals courts.

“The Republican side may be far more successful in blocking lower court orders sought by Democrats and voting rights groups seeking to expand voting by mail,” CNN election law analyst Rick Hasen wrote in a Slate op-ed published Monday. “Although Democrats in particular have crowed about some of their (sometimes partial) victories, things are far from over.”