Ron Elving

The Supreme Court dealt same-sex marriage advocates a historic victory Friday, ruling 5-4 that states must license and recognize same-sex marriage. For more, David Greene speaks with NPR's Ron Elving.

The tragic events in Charleston this month have released years of racial and political tension in the South, and the pressure is being felt by Republican officeholders across the region.

Why the Republicans? Because it is increasingly difficult to find officeholders in the region who are not Republicans.

The South ...

Jeb Bush declared his candidacy for president Monday with no jacket or tie, but he didn't really let his hair down until he repeated much of his speech Tuesday night on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show.

On Tonight, the candidate with the familiar name was "slow jammin' the news." That's a ...

This post was updated at 12 p.m. ET

The 2016 presidential race has attracted the widest and most diverse field of major candidates in anyone's memory. Yet, even in this crowd, Donald John Trump Sr. stands apart. On Tuesday, he joined that field, two days after his 69th birthday.

Donald ...

Major decisions are expected this month, as the U.S. Supreme Court works its way through several cases still pending before it closes out its calendar for the 2014-2015 term.

Among the biggest issues hanging fire: the status of same-sex marriages, subsidies for health insurance under Obamacare and the drugs that ...

This post was updated at 5:45 p.m. E.T.

Although not nearly so crowded as its Republican counterpart, the Democratic field of presidential contenders is growing. On Wednesday, Lincoln Chafee, a former senator and governor of Rhode Island, became the fourth major politician to enter the White House chase as a ...

This post has been updated to reflect that Pataki is officially running.

George Pataki announced his presidential candidacy in Exeter, N.H., on Thursday. He's the eighth official Republican entrant in the 2016 race for the White House. The field is expected to double over the next couple of months. Pataki ...

When the Supreme Court returns for its next term in October, among the cases it has agreed to hear is a challenge to a fundamental practice that has governed American elections for generations.

When public-policy makers talk about a state's population, they generally mean the number of human beings living ...

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a Republican, held the floor of the Senate for 10 1/2 hours Wednesday afternoon and evening, airing his objections to the NSA bulk collection of telephone records in the U.S.

Many of the accounts of this lengthy performance referred to it as a filibuster, or ...

Before there was George, there was Sid.

George Stephanopoulos is, of course, the ABC news anchor whose $75,000 in donations to the Clinton foundation have reminded the world of his longtime ties to Bill Clinton, for whom he worked from 1991 to 1997.

But before Stephanopoulos had entered ...

Jim Wright occupies a kind of shadow territory in Washington memory. He rose to be speaker of the House, arguably the second most powerful job in the country. For a season he challenged the authority of the president on foreign policy. A master of the internal politics and practices of ...

This week we mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. On our screens and in our memory's eye we can see the helicopters lifting the last, desperate evacuees from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.

Today, Saigon is Ho Chi Minh City, named for ...

If this Senate is getting some traction, it's not yet a threat to anyone's legislative hall of fame. Much higher hurdles loom, including highway funding, spending bills and the debt ceiling.

When the former senator, secretary of state and first lady announced for president on Sunday she smiled into the camera and said, "I'm Hillary Clinton."

Those who were hoping for a return of Hillary's family name, "Rodham," as part of her public identity might have felt some disappointment. For many ...

Hillary Clinton has made it official: she's running for president in 2016. Sen. Marco Rubio is set to announce his presidential plans Monday. In Panama, leaders wrapped up the Summit of the Americas.

When word came of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid's decision to retire, various observers and Democratic constituencies quickly emerged with their choices for his successor as the party's Senate leader.

There were those who touted Patty Murray of Washington, the proven problem-solver and veteran legislator who has worked her way ...

They said it couldn't be done. And for more than a decade they were right.

But on Thursday, staring at a deadline that could have disrupted health care to millions of seniors, the House got something done.

It voted to fix the flawed formula for compensating doctors who provide services ...

Senate Republican Dan Coats of Indiana announced Tuesday — probably surprising no one — that he would not seek another term in 2016. Although he has been a stalwart Republican through a turbulent generation in Washington, Coats seems less at home in the hyper-partisan world of Congress today.

While Coats, ...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has apparently had enough of the fig leaf most presidential candidates wear as their unofficial spring costume the year before the election actually happens.

That is a bold stroke, but entirely in keeping with the go-for-broke style the junior senator from Texas has exhibited since first ...

Vice President Joe Biden has been more visible than almost any of his 46 predecessors in the nation's No. 2 office. He's had more access to the Oval Office and more input on policy than all but a handful.

But there is one VP duty Biden has never fulfilled, because ...