California voters have rejected a measure amending the state Constitution to ban forced labor in any form.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has directed the military to carry out a smooth transition to President-elect Donald Trump with a reminder to the force of its obligation to follow the lawful orders of the next commander in chief.

It’s up to governments to run and administer elections and maintain the official record of who won and by how much.

Bipartisan legislation introduced in the House would require presidents and vice presidents to publicly disclose tax returns before, during and after their time in the White House.

Democrats have introduced legislation that would prohibit U.S. officials from accepting money, payments or gifts from foreign governments without congressional consent.

Irish voters are voting in twin referendums to decide whether to amend the constitution and remove passages the government says are outdated and sexist.

A federal judge has blocked a Texas law that would allow police to arrest migrants suspected of entering the U.S. illegally.

Hundreds of people charged with storming the U.S. Capitol three years ago have had a powerful incentive to plead guilty rather than go to trial.

Five voters in Massachusetts have become the latest to challenge former President Donald Trump's eligibility to appear on Republican primary election ballot in March, claiming he is ineligible to hold office because he encouraged and did little to stop the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

A series of lawsuits challenging former President Donald Trump's ability to run for his old job raise the question of what, exactly, is an insurrection.

The heir to the Spanish throne has sworn allegiance to the Constitution on her 18th birthday, laying the groundwork for her to become queen when the time comes.

Lawyers in Colorado are sparring over former President Donald Trump’s relationship with the mob that attacked the Capitol.

Lawyers for a group of Colorado voters are focusing on the January 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol and former President Donald Trump’s words and actions in a hearing that could determine whether the Constitution’s insurrection clause bars Trump from running again for the White House.

Federal prosecutors say Donald Trump is “not above the law” as they are urging a judge to reject the former president’s efforts to dismiss the case charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The political party that captured first place in Thailand’s general election two months ago — only to see the country’s unelected Senators block it from taking power — is fighting back.

A divided Supreme Court has struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.

A first-of-its kind trial in Montana will decide if the constitutional right to a healthy, livable climate is protected by state law.

2022's most notable quotations include a tart retort by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to a U.S. offer of help.

The Supreme Court is about to confront a new elections case that could dramatically alter voting in 2024 and beyond.

Chileans have resoundingly rejected a new constitution to replace a charter imposed by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet 41 years ago, dealing a stinging setback to President Gabriel Boric who argued the document would usher in a progressive era.

Over 30 years after a U.S.-led international military coalition expelled occupying Iraqi troops from Kuwait, planners have broken ground on the long-simmering plans for a Gulf War memorial.

Aharown Campbell, an aspiring attorney, told us how this moment impacted him.

The Supreme Court has allowed a former state trooper to sue Texas over his claim that he was forced out of his job when he returned from Army service in Iraq.

The start of June means the Supreme Court enters its final weeks of term that may reveal decisions on issues like abortion. Many believe it will have effects on several individual constitutional rights, like same-sex marriage.

The Supreme Court has been asked in arguments to overturn a nationwide right to abortion that has existed for nearly 50 years.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority justices are signaling they will allow states to ban abortion much earlier in pregnancy.

Sedition and treason cases have been rare in U.S. history.

As the nation this week made Juneteenth a federal holiday, lawmakers are reviving calls to end a loophole in the Constitution that has allowed another form of slavery to endure.

The reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act passed 244-172 with 29 Republicans joining Democrats in supporting the legislation. The White House announced its support earlier Wednesday for reauthorizing VAWA, which aims to reduce domestic and sexual violence and improve the response to it through a variety of grant programs. AdPresident Joe Biden introduced the original Violence Against Women Act in June 1990 when serving as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A subsequent version was eventually included in a sweeping crime bill that President Bill Clinton would sign into law four years later. Congress has reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act three times since.

FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2021 file photo, A mural of George Floyd is seen in George Floyd Square in Minneapolis. DOES THE U.S. CONSTITUTION REQUIRE DIVERSE JURIES? In the 1940 decision Smith vs. Texas, the high court ruled unanimously that the Constitution prohibits racial discrimination in the selection of grand juries, finding it “at war with our basic concepts of a democratic society and a representative government.”WHY ARE DIVERSE JURIES MORE LIKELY TO DELIVER FAIRER VERDICTS? “With diverse juries, there are more vantage points,” he said. Other studies have found similarly positive effects on juries, even if just one or two non-white jurors are included with a mostly white jury.

The impeachment trial represents a remarkable reckoning with the violence in the Capitol last month, which the senators witnessed firsthand, and with Trump’s presidency overall. AdThe impeachment trial, Trump’s second, begins in earnest on Feb. 9. “The only honorable path at that point was for President Trump to accept the results and concede his electoral defeat. Instead, he summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue,” the Democrats wrote in an 80-page document. “There is no ‘January Exception’ to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution,” the Democrats wrote.

Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. The tragedy deepened late Thursday as a Capitol police officer injured in the melee died, the fifth death related to the riot. The U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement that Officer Brian D. Sicknick died from injuries sustained responding to the riot on Wednesday at the Capitol. The procedure allows for the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare the president unfit for office. Black lawmakers, in particular, noted the way the mostly white Trump supporters were treated.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)WASHINGTON – Vice President Mike Pence defied President Donald Trump early Thursday morning as he affirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s November victory, putting an end to Trump’s futile efforts to subvert American democracy and overturn the results of the election. Pence acknowledged that reality in a lengthy statement Wednesday laying out his conclusion that a vice president cannot claim “unilateral authority” to reject states' electoral votes. Pence's move was an expected outcome, but one that carved a dramatic fissure between Trump and Pence, his once most loyal lieutenant. “If Mike Pence does the right thing we win the election,” Trump wrongly told supporters, who later marched through Washington and stormed the Capitol. He repeatedly returned to Pence throughout his speech, voicing frustration as he tried to pressure the vice president to fall in line.

Congressman Ben Cline announced Tuesday that he will support objections to the Electoral College certification process on Wednesday. Cline, who represents Virginia’s 6th Congressional District, joins other congressmen planning to reject Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. In addition, the state Legislatures have enacted laws with detailed election rules and procedures by which voters are to choose their presidential electors. Our founders set up a system of, by, and for the people that placed the state Legislatures at its very heart, and that heart still beats strongly today. Virginia’s 6th Congressional District, which contains all of Amherst County, Augusta County, Bath County, Botetourt County, Highland County, Page County, Rockbridge Couty, Rockingham County, Shenandoah County, Warren County, Buena Vista, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Staunton, Waynesboro and parts of Bedford and Roanoke counties.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has declared that he has the “absolute right” to issue a pardon to himself. The Constitution’s text — affording the president “power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment" — can be read to suggest that the Founding Fathers envisioned some sort of limitations on a president’s pardon power. The question of whether Trump will do it, though, is as unsettled as the question of whether he can. But, Tushnet said, Trump's lawyers could conceivably try to invoke double-jeopardy arguments to claim that a federal pardon should bar any New York state prosecution based on the same conduct. On the federal level, a self-pardon obviously handcuffs the Justice Department under President-elect Joe Biden from pursuing any federal case against Trump.

FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2020, file photo an American flag waves in front of the Supreme Court building on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments over whether the Trump administration can exclude people in the country illegally from the count used for divvying up congressional seats. It's the latest, and likely the last, Trump administration hard-line approach to immigration issues to reach the high court. Will the quality of the census data be hurt by a shortened schedule, a pandemic and natural disasters? Will a lame-duck Senate pass legislation that could extend deadlines for turning in census numbers?

ROANOKE, Va. – Virginia voters haven’t elected a Republican to statewide office in more than a decade, but Daniel Gade is hoping to change that. a lifetime of demonstrated fidelity to the Constitution and willingness to risk everything including my life for my values, for our shared values,” said Gade. Here’s the full interview of Gade speaking with 10 News:The 25-year Army veteran lost a leg in Iraq and was decorated for valor. “This is it just an extension of what I’ve always done, just serve my fellow citizens and serve the constitution,” said Gade. Gade said he hopes that having somebody you can trust will land him a spot in the Senate.

New York, Seattle and Portland, three cities recently labeled "anarchist jurisdictions" by the U.S. Justice Department, are suing to to invalidate the designation and to fight off the Trump administration's efforts to withhold federal dollars. “The Trump administration’s political threats against Seattle and other Democratic cities are unlawful and an abuse of federal power," Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said in a news release announcing the federal lawsuit. The Justice Department last month identified New York City, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle as three cities that could have federal funding slashed. “They’ve actually taken this anarchist designation and started to include it in applications for federal grants,” Johnson said. As much as $12 billion in federal money affecting health, transportation and law enforcement programs could be at stake, Johnson said.

___“I don’t think abortion or the right to abortion would change. It’s never appropriate for a judge to impose that judge’s personal convictions, whether they derive from faith or anywhere else on the law.” — 2017 Senate hearing. — 2017 Senate hearing. Its members might be seen as partisan rather than impartial and case law as fueled by power rather than reason.” — Texas Law Review. If she is not sure enough, the preference for continuity trumps.” — Texas Law Review.

But what happens if a candidate for president dies before Election Day? Instead, they are voting for slates of electors who will pick the president and vice president as members of the Electoral College. In modern U.S. elections, the meeting of the Electoral College is essentially a ceremonial confirmation of the choice made by voters. If no candidate reaches 270 electoral votes, the House chooses the president and the Senate chooses the vice president, in a process spelled out in the Constitution. In 1824, Andrew Jackson won a a plurality of the popular vote and the most Electoral College votes.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)Some notable quotes from Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, a former Notre Dame law professor and current judge on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. It’s never appropriate for a judge to impose that judge’s personal convictions, whether they derive from faith or anywhere else on the law.” — 2017 confirmation hearing. — 2017 confirmation hearing. Its members might be seen as partisan rather than impartial and case law as fueled by power rather than reason.” — Texas Law Review. If she is not sure enough, the preference for continuity trumps.” — Texas Law Review.

Even if the election is messy and contested in court, the country will have a president on Inauguration Day. But states' electoral votes have to be cast on Dec. 14. When the electors meet, the candidate who gets at least 270 of the 538 electoral votes wins. But what happens if election issues still prevent a winner from being named? In a contingent election, House members have to choose among the three people with the most electoral votes.

Business and defense community members will join him to talk about the Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing program. Donations will be collected today and tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Sams Club on Wards Road in Lynchburg. The Botetourt County Board of Supervisors will meet today to discuss schools. The Roanoke County Police Department holds a Diversity in Law Enforcement recruiting event tonight. The event begins tonight at 6 p.m. at the Roanoke County Criminal Justice Academy on Barnes Avenue.

The state 4th District Court of Appeal ruled Kraft's rights were violated under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Police say the recordings show Kraft and other men engaging in sex acts with women and paying them. Police say they twice recorded Kraft, a widower, paying for sex acts at the Orchids of Asia massage parlor. He said detectives had to fully record all massages, because the sex acts happened at their conclusion and 95% of male customers received one. DeSousa said even if the court finds police violated innocent customers privacy rights, the Supreme Court has ruled that in most circumstances, only improperly seized evidence should be thrown out.

OKLAHOMA CITY Oklahoma voters will decide Tuesday whether to expand Medicaid to tens of thousands of low-income residents and become the first state to amend their Constitution to do so. While an increasing number of Oklahoma voters took advantage of mail-in voting for Tuesday's primary, polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. statewide. Amending the Oklahoma Constitution will prevent the Republican-controlled Legislature, which has resisted Medicaid expansion for a decade, from tinkering with the program or rolling back coverage. Oklahoma is one of 14 states, along with neighboring Texas and Kansas, that have not expanded Medicaid under the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority has projected that about 215,000 residents would qualify for a Medicaid expansion, for a total annual cost of about $1.3 billion.

What am I to do, without even having the decency of a conversation to discuss the difficulties of race? Low asked his colleagues on Wednesday. If we cant even have these tough conversations, what do you think is going to happen to the electorate?" Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, who authored the repeal, apologized on the Assembly floor just before the vote for not contacting lawmakers individually. This is not the same California that voted on this 25 years ago, said Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, a Democrat from Los Angeles. California State University, the nations largest four-year public university with 23 campuses and nearly 482,000 students, has a student body that is nearly 75% people of color.

The House approved Friday a package of historic rules changes so Congress can keep functioning even while it's partly closed. Under the new rules, House lawmakers will no longer be required to travel to Washington to participate in floor votes. House lawmakers will be able to draft bills, conduct oversight and even issue subpoenas from the comfort of their homes. A key Trump ally, McCarthy argues if other Americans are at work, Congress should be, too. But Republicans warn there will be legal challenges to legislation passed during this period, questioning the constitutional legitimacy of proxy votes.

State Sen. John Edwards (D), who represents Roanoke, Roanoke County, and Giles County, says the answer is to get to work. Edwards has held his Senate seat since 1995, but he has never been in the position where his party controlled the Senate, House and the governorship. "This was the most important election because finally, we're in a position to do things," Edwards said. "It's a challenging endeavor, but fortunately, we've got some great talent and good people that want to get things done," Rasoul said. Edwards and Rasoul said many things could end up on the new General Assembly's agenda, including gun control, criminal justice reform and transportation funding.

Under the Constitution, the two chambers of Congress have the ultimate power to determine whether a President is removed from office. In the 1993 case of Nixon v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled impeachment "nonjusticiable," that is, a political question. The determination involved not the former president but US District Court Judge Walter Nixon of Mississippi, who had been impeached and convicted in 1989. Today, as members of the US House continue hearing witnesses related to Trump's dealings with Ukraine, that Supreme Court decision could become more salient. And we wrote a letter yesterday, and it probably ends up being a big Supreme Court case.

(CNN) - President Donald Trump continues to show disdain for the Constitution by his suggestion to hold the G7 summit at his Doral golf resort, lawyers for more than 200 Democrats in Congress told a federal appeals court Tuesday in an emoluments lawsuit. "Increasingly brazen, President Trump just last week announced that he was awarding the next G7 summit to his resort in Doral, Florida, only to reverse course after a public outcry -- in the aftermath, disparaging 'you people with this phony Emoluments Clause,'" a court filing states. A lower court allowed the lawsuit to go forward, but the appellate court agreed to step in and hear an early appeal before any subpoenas could go out. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney made the original announcement of the G7 decision on Thursday; Trump reversed the decision Saturday. Similar lawsuits are pending in other courts and the issue is likely to land before the Supreme Court.

Puerto Rico's financial oversight board might live to guard the island's restructuring for another day. WASHINGTON, D.C. - Puerto Rico's financial oversight board might live to guard the island's restructuring for another day. Aurelius Investments, one of Puerto Rico's creditors, as well as the Puerto Rican electrical industry and irrigation workers union, argued that the appointment of the board was unconstitutional because its members weren't confirmed by the Senate. Late last month, the oversight board released a plan to restructure $35 billion of Puerto Rico's debt and more than $50 billion of pension liabilities. But the justices seemed reluctant to accept a key part of the plaintiffs' argument, that the oversight board acts primarily on a federal rather than local level.

Getty Images(CNN) - Former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday for the first time called for President Donald Trump's impeachment. In late September, Biden made his call for an impeachment inquiry conditional, and said if Trump did not cooperate with Congress, he would leave lawmakers with "no choice" but to start impeachment proceedings. Later that same day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump. Biden praised the whistleblower who flagged Trump's call with the Ukrainian president to the intelligence community's inspector general, and lambasted Trump for attacking the whistleblower. The Republican senators in the letter echoed calls then-Vice President Joe Biden made at the time.

Lawyers standing before the Supreme Court now will have at least two minutes to talk before justices rip their arguments apart. If the Supreme Court agrees to hear the appeal of the so-called "faithless electors," it could thrust the justices into yet another high-passion political fight in the heat of the 2020 presidential election. Overall, 10 of the 538 presidential electors in 2016 voted or attempted to vote for someone other than their pledged candidate, Lessig noted. In May, the Washington state Supreme Court held that the state could regulate the vote of an elector either directly or indirectly. They appealed their case eventually to the Washington state Supreme Court, which ruled against them, holding that they "act by authority of the State."

(CNN) - Several Democratic presidential hopefuls are calling for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after a new book provided unreported details of an incident of alleged sexual misconduct while he was a student at Yale. The House of Representatives would vote on whether to impeach the justice in question. The House needs only a simple majority to impeach a Supreme Court justice or any federal judge. "The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior," the document states. Samuel Chase is the only Supreme Court justice who was ever impeached, in 1804, and he was acquitted by the Senate in 1805, according to the Supreme Court of the United States and the Senate.