Lawyers

• House passes bill slapping IRS over tea party controversy

  A bill slapping the IRS over the tea party controversy has been passed in the House. It prohibits the agency from targeting people who exercise their right of free speech.

• U.S. military drills stoke politics of suspicion in Texas

  To hear the conspiracy theorists tell it, a labyrinth of tunnels is being built under Walmart stores for military attacks on civilians, and an orchestrated financial crisis will lead to martial law, U.S. troops patrolling chaotic streets, and a dictatorship under President Barack Obama.

• Americans don't like big government - but like many programs: poll

  Conservative presidential candidates hitting the 2016 campaign trail are firing up crowds with calls to shrink the U.S. government, but a new poll shows that Republican voters who rally to that cry still want to maintain many federal programs.

• U.S. Supreme Court split over Obamacare challenge

  The U.S. Supreme Court appeared sharply divided on ideological lines on Wednesday as it tackled a second major challenge to President Barack Obama's healthcare law, with Justice Anthony Kennedy emerging as a likely swing vote in a ruling.

• Keystone bill unlikely to rescue Landrieu in U.S. Senate runoff

  A push by U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu to pass a bill authorizing the contentious Keystone XL pipeline is unlikely to give the Louisiana Democrat a significant boost against her Republican challenger in a December runoff, political analysts said on Thursday.

• Obama says Republicans committing political suicide on immigration

  U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday that Republicans are committing political suicide by resisting comprehensive immigration reform and vowed to go ahead with his plans to loosen some migration rules on his own after Nov. 4 elections.

• Selling Mitch McConnell: What's love got to do with it?

  Mitch McConnell is hardly a lovable guy. The Republican leader in the U.S. Senate has a dour public persona and many of his constituents don't view him as a "real Kentuckian," according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that underscores what his election campaign already knows - McConnell has an image problem.

• Louisiana Governor Jindal, likely White House contender, touts energy plan

  Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican considering a 2016 U.S. presidential run, accused the Obama administration on Tuesday of being "science deniers" when it comes to energy, a critique often aimed at his own party.

• Mississippi high court to hear challenge of U.S. Senate race outcome

  The Mississippi Supreme Court will hear Tea Party-backed Senate candidate Chris McDaniel's legal challenge of his Republican primary defeat in a race he claims was stolen, a justice ordered Tuesday.

• Mississippi Senate election challenge appealed to state's top court

  The Tea Party-backed U.S. Senate candidate in Mississippi on Friday appealed a judge's decision to dismiss an election challenge over his Republican primary loss in June.

• U.S. Senate investigators split on party lines over IRS scandal

  Democratic Senate investigators criticized a watchdog for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Friday for "inaccurately and unfairly" damaging public confidence in the tax agency's political impartiality.

• Republic gubernatorial candidate seeks legal action against own party

  Boston gubernatorial candidate for the Tea Party Mark Fisher claimed in his lawsuit against the state GOP that he was cheated out of his place in the primary when the party counted the blank ballots, which, in turn, reduced his convention vote percentage to qualify for the primary.

• Koch brother wins fake wine case, judge reduces award

  US District Judge Paul Oetken of the Manhattan federal court today sided with the jury in siding with complainant billionaire William Koch over fraudulent sale of purportedly vintage wines, but reduced the total award in damages to less than a million dollars.

• Voting rights for ex-convicts to be restored by Obama administration, conservatives in reform

  The Wall Street Journal reported that the unusual alliance of the US government and conservative lawmakers indicate a shift in how politics view crime in light of the swelling population in US prisons.