WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court allowed Shira Perlmutter to continue to serve as register of copyrights for the Library of Congress in an order issued Tuesday, denying a request from the Trump administration to remove her while she fights her firing in court.

The two-sentence decision leaves open the issue of whether Trump can remove officials...Read more

A decades-old law limiting how much money political parties can spend in coordination with candidates was struck down by the Supreme Court on June 30, 2026. Citing First Amendment principles, the court held in NRSC v. FEC that the limit unduly prevented political parties from “freely” and “fully” advocating for their respective ...Read more

New Jersey Rep. Tom Kean Jr. resurfaced Tuesday on Capitol Hill and said treatment for depression was the cause of his four-month absence from public view.

Kean, 57, the scion of a famed Garden State political family, said in a speech on the floor of the House that he was hospitalized to treat the condition but now expects to return to a full ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Rep. Thomas H. Kean Jr. returned to the Capitol on Tuesday after an almost four-month-long absence, citing treatment for depression as the reason for his disappearance.

In a brief speech on the House floor, the New Jersey Republican described himself as a private person.

“Talking about myself has never come naturally, but I ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court backed state laws banning transgender girls from participating in scholastic girls’ sports in a decision issued Tuesday, upholding a legal argument used by the Trump administration in seeking to ban transgender athletes nationwide.

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, in a majority opinion that turned aside challenges ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down Watergate-era limits on how much political parties can spend in a coordinated campaign with their candidates.

By a 6-3 vote, the court said the restrictions on parties and their campaign ads violate the First Amendment.

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said the court was restoring broad free ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court overturned a key campaign finance restriction in a decision issued Tuesday, clearing the way for political parties nationwide to spend unlimited amounts on behalf of candidates in federal elections.

The 6-3 decision came in a challenge from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, as well as Vice President ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday wiped out President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to redefine birthright citizenship, an effort to restrict American citizenship without Congress that cut against more than a century of legal precedent.

The 6-3 decision, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. writing a five-justice majority...Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court – with its six conservative justices, three of whom were nominated by President Donald Trump – has recently reversed landmark decisions that have long guided American government and society. Over the last few years, the court has stripped federal protection of abortion rights, affirmative action, gun control, and a ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the Constitution’s promise that all those born here are citizens of the United States, regardless of the status of their parents.

In a 6-3 decision, the justices rejected President Donald Trump’s plan to revise the Constitution by executive order and to end citizenship at birth for ...Read more

CHICAGO — Two independent candidates aiming to give voters more choices in the Illinois 4th Congressional District race are still fighting to keep their names on the November ballot — casualties, they say, of the same hardball political maneuvering that delivered the Democratic nomination to outgoing U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García’s ...Read more

Law enforcement officials frequently draw virtual fences around areas of interest and require Google to identify every cellphone in the area using cell location history. Dubbed a “geofence search,” officers obtain a warrant that permits a multistep, give-and-take information sharing process between officers and tech employees that winnows...Read more

As we wrote here last week, public safety must ultimately fall on the shoulders of Chicago mayors. More bureaucracy — in the form of the new stand-alone Department of Gun Violence Reduction — while well-intentioned, isn’t the panacea to what plagues our city, especially as whoever is appointed head of this new department will enjoy too ...Read more

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court last week let President Donald Trump put another nail in the coffin of America’s humanitarian asylum program and allowed him to end Temporary Protected Status for some 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians in the country, who could now be sent back to life-threatening conditions abroad.

The TPS decision has...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — In a rare public appearance in Philadelphia, Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman joined Republican U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick at a youth basketball camp in Nicetown on Monday to promote Trump Accounts, the new federally backed savings accounts for kids that became law with the president’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

...Read more

Kansas City Democrat Hartzell Gray emphasized his Democratic Socialist policy platform in a wide-ranging interview with controversial pundit Hasan Piker on Sunday.

Gray, a former radio host, activist and community organizer, is seeking the Democratic nomination for Missouri’s 4th Congressional District. Gray is endorsed by Kansas City’s ...Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to a Washington state law aimed at helping transgender or pregnant runaway teens to access emergency shelter.

The 2023 law drew national media attention and backlash, including dueling protests at the state Capitol, a failed repeal effort and federal legal challenges brought by parents...Read more

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Monday formally transmitted to the White House the bipartisan housing package that President Donald Trump refused to sign last week.

That triggers a 10-day clock, excluding Sundays, for Trump to either sign or veto the bill; if he does neither, it will become law without his signature by July 10.

The House ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Online safety legislation focused on children and teens that has come under fire from key senators passed the House Monday, setting the stage for continued wrangling as Congress seeks to address concerns raised by parent and free speech groups.

The bipartisan legislation, which Energy and Commerce Committee leadership amended ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump refused to commit to signing a major bipartisan housing bill, heightening uncertainty surrounding the fate of the legislation.

Trump told reporters Monday he had yet to decide on the measure, but again denigrated it, saying it was “so unimportant” compared to a voting bill he is pressuring the U.S. ...Read more