U.S. Edition
(CNN) - A conservative group announced Friday that its members spent $2 million in Senate races in the fourth quarter of 2013, roughly half of which went to support Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's arch-conservative primary challenger.
The Senate Conservatives Fund said members invested nearly $1 million in the primary race to oust McConnell and nominate tea party challenger Matt Bevin. FULL POST
(CNN) – The Justice Department on Friday appealed a December federal court decision threatening the National Security Agency's program that collects data on nearly every phone call made in the United States.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington found the program was likely unconstitutional.
Updated 9:37 a.m., 1/4/2014
Washington (CNN) – When Bobby Kaufmann opened his mail a few days before Christmas, a smiling picture of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is not what he expected to see.
But inside an envelope from New Jersey, the Iowa Republican lawmaker got a Christmas card from Christie–a man he has never met. FULL POST
(CNN) – Obamacare is again in the legal spotlight before the Supreme Court.
A blockbuster 2012 ruling upheld the constitutionality of the key funding part of the politically charged law aiming to get health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.
(CNN) - Congress will start the new year with an old fight: whether to extend jobless benefits for 1.3 million long-term unemployed.
They expired last week when lawmakers failed to continue a 2008 recession-era federal law providing nearly a year of benefits, paid for by U.S. taxpayers, that kicked in when state jobless benefits ran out.
(CNN) - Lawyers for a group of gay and lesbian couples in Utah have asked the Supreme Court to allow same-sex marriages to continue in the state, following a federal judge's ruling that found a law there banning the practice unconstitutional.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued an emergency injunction on Tuesday, but was expected to issue an order as early as Friday afternoon on whether to grant the state's request for an injunction to temporarily halt same-sex unions.
(CNN) - Republican groups blasted former Florida governor - and current gubernatorial hopeful - Charlie Crist on Friday for switching his position on same-sex marriage.
Their criticism comes in the wake of Crist's apology for his previous support of Florida's same-sex marriage ban. FULL POST
Washington (CNN) – The Supreme Court could act as early as Friday on pending requests for injunctions in two separate, high-profile cases– health care reform and same-sex marriage - that put Justice Sonia Sotomayor in an unusually pivotal role.
Religious-affiliated non-profits - including a Denver-based home for the elderly run by Catholic nuns - have asked the high court to block enforcement of the requirement in the Affordable Care Act to provide birth control and other reproductive health coverage to their workers.