Tampa, Florida (CNN) -- The Republican Party's platform committee on Tuesday rejected a measure that would have expressed formal support for same-sex civil unions.

(CNN) -- An appeals court on Monday sided with the federal government in blocking several provisions in Alabama and Georgia's controversial anti-illegal immigration laws, while allowing other key parts of those laws to stand.

(CNN) -- The Arkansas medical examiner has ruled the death of a man shot while handcuffed in the back of a police car as a suicide, the state crime lab announced Monday.

(CNN) -- For the third week in a row, Mitt Romney's up with a new television commercial that claims President Barack Obama is altering the federal welfare-to-work program by dropping work requirements in the law.

(CNN) -- To mark the end of Islam's holiest month, Iftikhar Ali will head not to a mosque but to a convention center guarded by law enforcement officers.

(CNN) -- Tears streamed down 12-year-old Marcus Allen's face in 2009, as he recalled how members of a private suburban Philadelphia swim club had hurled racial slurs and worried aloud if he and other mostly minority day campers might steal from them.

Josh and Katy Vander Kamp met in drug rehab. In the seven years since, they have been rebuilding their lives in Apache Junction, Ariz., a small town east of Phoenix.

On Wednesday, in a closely watched case, a state judge in Pennsylvania declined to block the state's controversial voter ID law from taking effect.

FREMONT, Calif. – Manat Kaur is in many ways a typical 14-year-old, indistinguishable from others her age in her usual outfit of sneakers, jeans and T-shirt. But when asked, the soon-to-be high school freshman makes it a point never to hide her Sikh identity.

PHOENIX – Arizona governor Jan Brewer issued an executive order on Wednesday that will deny undocumented youth access to state-issued identification cards and other state benefits. But the order, say legal experts, will have consequences for other immigrants as well.