WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court on Monday turned down a Christian group's free-speech challenge to the laws in California and 21 other states that forbid licensed counselors from using "conversion therapy" with children and teenagers.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. filed dissents, and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said he ...Read more

Kate Cox, a 31-year-old Dallas-Fort Worth married mother of two, might die. She’s not recovering from some tragic accident, nor does she have some kind of untreatable ailment. The best path to her health is eminently clear and medically proven: an abortion to terminate an unviable 20-week pregnancy, as recommended by her doctors.

Those ...Read more

We regret to inform you that Ken Paxton is at it again.

When the Texas Senate declined to remove him from office during an impeachment trial in September, Paxton immediately went back to his regular activities, which is to say he started using the office of attorney general to sue anybody and everybody, usually in service of some political ...Read more

Greg Abbott isn’t someone most Chicagoans look upon with fondness. And for good reason. Leave aside the nasty politics for a moment, though, and in a key respect Abbott has done Chicago and the country a favor.

The Texas governor has sowed chaos in our local politics by dispatching multiple busloads of migrants to Chicago with little notice ...Read more

Former President Donald Trump said he will not testify in his New York civil fraud trial on Monday, back-tracking on a statement last week in which he said he would be taking the stand in his defense case.

Trump said in a post on Sunday that he had “nothing more to say” after his testimony in early November, calling the case a “witch hunt...Read more

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy is headed to Washington for talks with President Joe Biden and U.S. congressional leaders, signaling a push to energize support among his country’s allies almost two years into Russia’s invasion.

With Biden’s request for further military assistance to Kyiv stalled in Congress, the Ukrainian president will ...Read more

A recent lawsuit by TV and theater workers exposes a conflict between Georgia’s new voting law and a federal requirement allowing more time to request absentee ballots.

Georgia’s election law has mostly survived court challenges in the 2 1/2 years since Republican legislators passed limitations on mail-in voting following Donald Trump’s ...Read more

President Joe Biden’s backing for Israel in its war with Hamas is alienating at least a third of Democrats, a CBS News/YouGov poll showed, as criticism of his administration’s stance grows.

The share of Democrats who said Biden has shown too much support rose to 38% from 28% in October, according to the poll, which has a 5 percentage-point ...Read more

President Joe Biden faces a new threat to his reelection bid from the latest round of criminal charges against his son Hunter, with Republicans led by Donald Trump seizing on the case as a political gift.

Trump, attempting to detract from his own legal troubles, has new fodder for his unsubstantiated allegations that the president was involved...Read more

The fourth Republican presidential debate thankfully featured just four candidates rather than the cattle call we saw in previous sessions. But, whether there are four or 14 running, the same problem persists.

There’s only one — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — willing to tell primary voters what too many of them apparently don’t...Read more

LOS ANGELES — They rattled and swayed the wire fence installed to separate them from the world’s most powerful man.

Faced with the barrier, the 1,200-1,500 pro-Palestinian protesters who gathered Friday at Holmby Park shouted louder — calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and an end to U.S. financial and military aid to Israel.

They charged ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Hundreds of demonstrators rallying in solidarity with Palestinians gathered Friday outside a Westwood fundraiser for President Biden — a planned protest that drew an ominous warning from the Los Angeles Police Department that “violence of any kind will not be tolerated.”

The LAPD said in a post on the social media platform...Read more

NEW YORK — A prominent New York University accounting professor who blasted the state’s civil fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump as “absurd” testified that the former president and his political action committee have so far paid him $877,500 for his work as an expert witness on the case.

Eli Bartov, who has spent two days testifying in ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Republican National Committee has freed its presidential candidates from their pledge to only participate in debates sanctioned by the party, allowing rivals to Donald Trump to confront each other again before key nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire next month.

Television networks CNN and ABC have already announced...Read more

LAS VEGAS — President Joe Biden on Friday hailed the promise of a long-awaited high-speed rail system between Las Vegas and Los Angeles and said $3 billion in federal funds awarded this week will ensure it gets built.

“At long last we’re building the first high-speed rail project in our nation’s history and it’s starting here,” ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — As President Joe Biden arrived in Los Angeles on Friday for a weekend of fundraising among Hollywood elite, his only living son was hit with his second grand jury indictment this year — with the special counsel accusing the younger Biden of various tax crimes.

Hunter Biden has long served as a political punching bag for his ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Scores of demonstrators rallying in solidarity with Palestinians are expected to protest outside a Westwood fundraiser for President Joe Biden on Friday evening, drawing an ominous warning from the Los Angeles Police Department that "violence of any kind will not be tolerated."

The department said in a post on social media ...Read more