The Battle For Congress: Senate And House Races To Watch
For Republicans itching to regain control of the Senate, Tuesday's election presents a rare opportunity. Only 10 GOP incumbents are on the ballot, compared with nearly two dozen Democrats and...
View ArticleRepublicans Keep The House; Democrats To Retain Senate
Republicans have easily maintained their hold on the House, while missteps from Tea Party favorites helped Democrats retain a majority in the Senate. That means the two chambers of Congress remain...
View ArticleBP Expected To Plead Guilty, Pay Record Fine In Gulf Oil Spill Criminal Case
Update at 11:30 a.m. ET: Oil giant BP has agreed to plead guilty to criminal misconduct related to the 2010 Gulf Oil spill and will pay a record $4 billion in criminal penalties, the company just...
View ArticleWill U.S. Try To Snuff Out State Marijuana Laws?
The Justice Department has a big decision to make. Parts of new laws in Colorado and Washington that legalize small amounts of recreational marijuana will take effect early next month. The Obama...
View ArticleSponsors Of Assault Weapons Ban Hope Newtown Shooting Changes Minds
Congressional Democrats appeared on Capitol Hill Thursday to push for a new ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.The bill's author, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, started her...
View ArticleObama Names New Chief Of Staff, New Counterterrorism Adviser
Saying he is choosing "one of my closest friends and one of my closest advisers" for the job, President Obama on Friday said that longtime aide Denis McDonough will be his next chief of staff.During a...
View ArticleCourt Ruling Upsets Conventional Wisdom On Recess Appointments
In a bombshell decision on the limits of executive power, a federal appeals court panel in Washington, D.C., has invalidated President Obama's recess appointments to the National Labor Relations...
View ArticleGovernment Slowly Changes Approach To Whistle-Blowers
The federal government once considered whistle-blowers a nuisance or worse. But over the past few years, that attitude has slowly started to change.
View ArticleWhen Rand Paul Ended Filibuster, He Left Drones On National Stage
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky launched a nationwide conversation last week with his 13-hour filibuster of the president's nominee to lead the CIA.Paul vowed to keep talking until the White...
View ArticleJustice's Voting Rights Unit Suffers 'Deep Ideological Polarization' Says...
The Justice Department's voting rights unit suffers from "deep ideological polarization" and a "disappointing lack of professionalism" including leaks of sensitive case information, harassment and...
View ArticleCourt Says CIA Can't Have It Both Ways on Drones
A federal appeals court has rejected an effort by the CIA to deny it has any documents about a U.S. drone program that has killed terrorists overseas, ruling that the agency is stretching the law too...
View ArticleJudicial Vacancies Languish On Key Federal Appeals Court
The federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., is sometimes called the second most important court in the country, regularly delivering the final word on major environmental, labor and national...
View ArticleJustice Department Secretly Obtains AP Phone Records
The Associated Press is protesting what it calls a massive and unprecedented intrusion into its gathering of news. The target of that wrath is the U.S. Justice Department, which secretly collected...
View ArticleSource: Obama Considering Releasing NSA Court Order
NPR has learned that the Obama administration, under pressure to lift a cloak of secrecy, is considering whether to declassify a court order that gives the National Security Agency the power to gather...
View ArticleJustice Department Tackles Quality Of Defense For The Poor
All over the country, lawyers who defend poor people in criminal cases have been sharing their stories about painful budget cuts. Some federal public defenders have shut their doors to new clients...
View ArticleJustice Department Pushes New Thinking On Kids And Crime
For a man who spent the bulk of his career as a public defender, Robert Listenbee's new role walking around the halls of the U.S. Justice Department may not be the most comfortable fit.But Listenbee,...
View ArticleReport: Threat Of Mandatory Minimums Used To Coerce Guilty Pleas
A new report says the Justice Department regularly coerces defendants in federal drug cases to plead guilty by threatening them with steep prison sentences or stacking charges to increase their time...
View ArticleFederal Judge Rules NSA Bulk Phone Record Collection Unconstitutional
A federal judge in Washington says the National Security Agency's program for bulk phone record collection violates Americans' reasonable expectation of privacy.The ruling (pdf), however, has been...
View Article5 Takeaways From The President's NSA Speech
What does it mean when lawmakers as different as Colorado Democratic Senator Mark Udall and New York Republican Rep.
View ArticleHolder Orders Equal Treatment For Married Same-Sex Couples
Attorney General Eric Holder has for the first time directed Justice Department employees to give same-sex married couples "full and equal recognition, to the greatest extent under the law," a move...
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