CNN – US Politics

By Kaanita Iyer, CNN (CNN) — As several state legislative sessions have concluded or are drawing to a close, some of the high-profile legislation enacted by state lawmakers is just taking effect. Many states saw particularly polarizing sessions, with Democrats and Republican state lawmakers moving in opposite directions on abortion- and LGBTQ-related legislation. Several GOP-led

By Kevin Liptak and Arlette Saenz, CNN (CNN) — President Joe Biden wasn’t planning to take questions on Thursday. His helicopter was waiting outside on the White House’s South Lawn. But after a 10-minute statement on the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling, a CNN reporter called out, “Is this a rogue court?” The president stopped

By Casey Gannon (CNN) — A man arrested with multiple firearms and materials to make explosives in former President Barack Obama’s Washington, DC, neighborhood will remain in custody ahead of his detention hearing next week, a federal magistrate judge said Friday. Taylor Taranto, 37, was arrested Thursday and is facing four misdemeanor charges related to

By Devan Cole, CNN Washington (CNN) — The Supreme Court’s decision in favor of a Christian web designer in Colorado who refuses to create websites to celebrate same-sex weddings out of religious objections will have a far-reaching impact on other minority groups and could open the door to a slew of cases seeking to further

By Dianne Gallagher, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge will allow a ban on most abortions in North Carolina after 12 weeks of pregnancy to go into effect on Saturday but temporarily blocked one provision included in the law. US District Court Judge Catherine Eagles on Friday issued a narrow temporary restraining order putting on

By Devan Cole, CNN (CNN) — Several families in Georgia sued the state on Thursday over its ban on certain gender-affirming treatments for transgender youth, launching a last-minute effort to block the prohibitions just hours before it’s set to take effect. The law signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in March bars licensed medical professionals

By Marshall Cohen, CNN (CNN) — Hunter Biden’s lawyer lashed out Friday against the IRS whistleblowers who testified to Congress that the president’s son received preferential treatment from the Justice Department during his criminal investigation. The lawyer was publicly pushing back against claims from two IRS agents that the Justice Department officials slow-walked the criminal

By Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood, CNN (CNN) — The US State Department on Friday released its long-awaited Afghanistan After Action Review report, which found that both the Trump and Biden administrations’ decisions to pull all US troops from Afghanistan had detrimental consequences, and details damning shortcomings by the current administration that led to the

By Katie Lobosco, CNN Washington (CNN) — After a more than three-year pause, borrowers will have to restart paying their federal student loan bills in October. The Biden administration had intended to cancel up to $20,000 of student debt for millions of borrowers before payments resumed, but its proposed student loan forgiveness program was struck

By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review a federal law that bars an individual subject to a domestic violence restraining order from possessing a firearm, adding a major Second Amendment case to next term’s docket. A federal appeals court invalidated the law in March

By Ariane de Vogue and Devan Cole, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court Friday ruled in favor of a Christian web designer in Colorado who refuses to create websites to celebrate same-sex weddings out of religious objections. The 6-3 decision was penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices

By Blake Ellis, Melanie Hicken and Audrey Ash, CNN (CNN) — A secret investigation into alleged sexual abuse at the US Coast Guard Academy, the training ground for the Coast Guard’s top officers, uncovered a dark history of rapes, assaults and other serious misconduct being ignored and, at times, covered up by high-ranking officials. The

By Gregory Krieg, CNN (CNN) — Leading Republican presidential candidates are making their cases at the Moms for Liberty summit in Philadelphia on Friday and Saturday, a sign of the right-wing group’s growing influence in GOP national politics. Former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov.

By Lauren Fox, CNN (CNN) — House Republicans are furiously working through the recess to shore up support on a series of spending bills leaders hope to put on the floor as soon as July, another critical test for Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s struggle to hold onto his right flank and make good on a series

By Simone McCarthy and Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — The Chinese surveillance balloon that traversed the United States earlier this year before it was shot down did not collect intelligence while flying over the country, the Pentagon said Thursday. Steps taken by Washington to stop the high altitude device from potential information gathering as it

By Dianne Gallagher and Kaanita Iyer, CNN (CNN) — North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature has advanced a bill that would ban certain gender-affirming care for minors to the governor’s desk. The state’s House voted to pass the bill Wednesday along party lines after it cleared the state Senate earlier this week. The measure now awaits a

By Dianne Gallagher, CNN (CNN) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law significant changes to the state’s recently passed 12-week abortion ban, just hours before it is set to take effect Saturday. Earlier this week, the state’s Republican-controlled legislature advanced House Bill 190 – an unrelated measure focusing on the Department of Health

By Zachary Cohen and Kaitlan Collins, CNN (CNN) — Former Donald Trump campaign official Mike Roman is cooperating with prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith’s team in the ongoing criminal probe related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. One of the sources said that the agreement,

By Holmes Lybrand, John Miller and Evan Perez, CNN (CNN) — A man with numerous firearms and materials to make an explosive was arrested Thursday in former President Barack Obama’s Washington, DC, neighborhood after claiming on an internet livestream that he had a detonator, law enforcement officials told CNN. Taylor Taranto, who had an open

By Joan Biskupic, CNN Senior Legal Analyst (CNN) — As he began reading excerpts of his decision eviscerating college affirmative action, in a hushed courtroom Thursday, Chief Justice John Roberts delivered on a singular long-held goal. He had won a majority to roll back 45 years of Supreme Court precedent to further his view that

By Josh Campbell, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge in Mississippi ruled in favor of a convicted felon in a gun case on Wednesday while simultaneously slamming a recent landmark Second Amendment decision that expanded gun rights and changed the framework lower courts must use as they analyze firearm restrictions. In his ruling, Judge Carlton

By Fredreka Schouten, CNN (CNN) — The influential network associated with conservative billionaire Charles Koch has collected more than $70 million for political races, the group announced Thursday, as it gears up to help shape the outcome of next year’s contests up and down the ballot and encourage Republican voters to bypass former President Donald

By Natasha Bertrand, CNN Washington (CNN) — The Biden administration is strongly considering approving the transfer of controversial cluster munition warheads to Ukraine, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN, as the Ukrainians struggle to make major gains in their weeks’ old counteroffensive. Officials told CNN that a final decision is expected soon from

By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court’s landmark decision on Thursday to gut affirmative action has made it unlawful for colleges to take race into consideration as a specific factor in admissions. The ruling means that admissions programs like those at the two universities at the center of the case, Harvard University

By Kylie Atwood, Alex Marquardt, Jeremy Herb and Zachary Cohen, CNN (CNN) — Rob Malley, the US special envoy on Iran, has been placed on leave without pay, which occurred after his security clearance was suspended earlier this year amid an investigation into his handling of classified material, multiple sources told CNN. A US official

By Sydney Kashiwagi, CNN (CNN) — A former Republican speaker of Ohio’s House of Representatives was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison for his role in a $60 million bribery scheme. Larry Householder was convicted by a federal grand jury in March on racketeering conspiracy charges in connection with a scheme to accept bribes

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN (CNN) — At least 100,000 people could have had their data compromised by a hack of contractors at the Department of Health and Human Services, a department official said Thursday, making it the latest US government agency to be caught up in a sweeping cyberattack connected to Russian cybercriminals. HHS notified

By Kara Scannell, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge denied Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit, finding the former president’s legal arguments are “without merit.” Trump filed a motion for summary judgment to dismiss Carroll’s original defamation lawsuit filed in 2019. He argued he was entitled to immunity because he was

By Marshall Cohen (CNN) — Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, has settled his child support case in Arkansas, reaching an agreement with the mother of one of his children and resolving a dispute that became a legal headache for him in recent months. The settlement was announced in a court filing Thursday

By Jeremy Diamond, Kevin Liptak and Arlette Saenz, CNN (CNN) — The White House has been preparing for months for a potential Supreme Court ruling gutting affirmative action, even as President Joe Biden expressed optimism late last year that the court would uphold consideration of race in college admissions. Biden on Thursday directed the Department

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN (CNN) — Former Vice President Mike Pence told CNN on Thursday that “repelling Russian aggression” is in the United States’ “national interest,” after meeting earlier in the day with the Ukrainian president during a visit to the war-torn country. The show of support for Ukraine comes as Republicans vying for the

By CNN staff (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Thursday said colleges and universities can no longer take race into consideration as an express factor in admissions. In a fiery dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by the court’s other liberals, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the opinion “rolls back decades of precedent and

By Joe Sutton, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked Kentucky Senate Bill 150, which would have prohibited transgender minors from receiving several forms of gender-affirming care. The ruling stops the law from taking effect while other courts hear challenges to the law. “Based on the evidence submitted, the court finds that

By Melanie Zanona, Manu Raju and Annie Grayer, CNN (CNN) — House Republicans are preparing to let the push for potential impeachment proceedings dominate their agenda over the next few months, as Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces growing pressure from an increasingly restive right flank eager to take aim at President Joe Biden and his Cabinet.

By Sam Fossum, CNN (CNN) — The Biden administration announced new actions Thursday to help prevent and reduce veteran homelessness across the country, including $3.1 billion in funding to support efforts to quickly rehouse homeless Americans. “These funds can be used for a wide range of critical interventions from rental assistance to supportive services to

By Jamiel Lynch, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily halted the enforcement of part of Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors in the state. Senate Bill 1, which was signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Lee in March and set to take effect July 1, prohibited health care providers “from

By Marshall Cohen Washington (CNN) — The tape of a conversation with Donald Trump and others made at his golf club in New Jersey has become perhaps the most critical publicly known evidence in the federal indictment against the former president. Special counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump with mishandling classified information after leaving the

By Kristen Holmes and Melanie Zanona, CNN (CNN) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy has scrambled to contain the fallout after he suggested that former President Donald Trump might not be the strongest candidate in the 2024 presidential race – comments that outraged Trump allies and raised fresh questions on the right about why the speaker has

By Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — President Joe Biden told CNN on Wednesday his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has “absolutely” been weakened by the short-lived mutiny over the weekend. It was his most definitive comment to date on how the rebellion by Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin affected the Russian leader’s stature. Biden and his

By Allie Malloy, CNN (CNN) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday emphatically denied that he was involved or present when his son Hunter Biden is alleged to have texted a Chinese business partner in 2017, claiming that he was sitting with his father. Asked whether he was involved in the business dealings or was sitting

By Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN (CNN) — On the campaign trail, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has attacked Donald Trump’s signature prison reform bill, calling it a “jailbreak bill” and claiming it “allowed dangerous people out of prison who have now reoffended and really, really hurt a number of people.” But as a congressman,

By Jeremy Diamond, Kevin Liptak and Betsy Klein, CNN Chicago (CNN) — President Joe Biden’s top economic advisers believe the worst effects of inflation are in the rear-view mirror. They are increasingly confident the economy is heading for a soft-landing, averting a recession. And a growing number of economists are beginning to agree. There’s just

By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Move over, Reaganomics. President Joe Biden is attempting to usher in the era of “Bidenomics.” This economic theory – which rejects the idea of “trickle-down” policies in favor of focusing on the middle class – will be a centerpiece of Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign. The president highlighted the achievements

By Dianne Gallagher, CNN (CNN) — The North Carolina General Assembly on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill that includes some last-minute changes to the state’s recently passed abortion law. The Republican-controlled legislature sent the bill to the Democratic governor’s desk, just a day before a federal judge is set to hear a motion

By Fredreka Schouten (CNN) — The top election official in Wisconsin appears poised to remain in her post for now – after state election commissioners deadlocked Tuesday on her reappointment. Meagan Wolfe, the administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, has been targeted by Republican lawmakers and conservative activists ever since the 2020 election saw Joe

By Paula Reid and Sara Murray, CNN (CNN) — Former Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has been interviewed by federal investigators as part of the special counsel’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, multiple sources familiar with the meeting told CNN. The meeting between Giuliani, his attorney Robert Costello, and investigators took

By Lauren del Valle, Kara Scannell and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, CNN New York (CNN) — A judge appears poised to reject former President Donald Trump’s attempt to move the New York criminal case that accuses him of falsifying business records tied to a hush money payment to federal court. In a hearing Tuesday, District Judge