New taxes on drug makers, lower prescription-drug costs for seniors and restrictions on tax-free medical spending accounts are among a slate of health-law provisions that kick in Saturday.

The changes show how the law will begin to reshape American health care, even as opponents try to overturn the measure in Congress and the courts.

Although House Republicans are threatening to starve the law of funding and stage a symbolic repeal vote, those actions aren't likely to block any significant pieces of the law aimed at consumers for 2011. That's because the changes generally involve new rules and don't require spending...

Congress has used the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight prostitution and domestic violence, to break monopolies and to combat segregation — but its biggest test could come over the Obama administration's claim that it can compel individuals to buy health insurance.

A federal judge earlier this month struck down part of the new health care law on the grounds that Congress had stretched the Commerce Clause too far. Other federal courts, though, have upheld the law, and its fate is certain to be decided eventually by the Supreme Court.

The battle is just the latest in a long line of showdowns over the clause. While some see it as a critical tool to give power to the most important pieces of legislation, others believe Congress has applied it too broadly...

Alaska Governor Sean Parnell asked a court last week to reconsider its decision from earlier this month to severely weaken a parental notification law.

Superior Court Judge John Suddock let the law voters approved in August stand but weakened it to the point that pro-life groups say it is now ineffective.

He said abortion practitioners should not face prison sentences for failing to comply with it. He also removed a section allowing parents to file a civil lawsuit against abortion practitioners who don’t comply seeking financial damages...

Newly elected Florida Gov. Rick Scott is making waves with his proposal that all children should receive education vouchers they can use to attend private, public or charter schools.

"The parent should figure out where the dollars for that student are spent," the Republican governor-elect told the St. Petersburg Times. "So if the parents want to spend it on virtual school, then spend it on virtual school. If they want to spend it on, you know, whatever education system they believe in, whether it's this public school or that public school or this private school or that private school, that's what ought to happen."

The idea has previously won backing from the late Nobel-laureate economist Milton Friedman and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as a way to foster competition among schools and give parents more choice in their children's education.

Responding to today’s ruling from a federal judge declaring the individual mandate portion of the abortion-funding ObamaCare law unconstitutional, top Republican lawmakers are pushing for a repeal of the entire law.

Speaker-elect John Boehner commented on the decision, calling for a repeal and saying states should repudiate ObamaCare now that it has been declared unconstitutional:

Today’s decision is an encouraging sign for families and small business owners who have revolted against President Obama’s job-killing health care law and called for its repeal...

Casting an unmistakable and perhaps permanent pockmark on the face of the Obama administration, a federal judge in Virginia ruled Monday that a major component of the new health care reform law is unconstitutional.

Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled Monday for the state's claim that the requirement for people to purchase health care exceeds the power of Congress under the Constitution's Commerce Clause or under the General Welfare Clause.

"It is not the effect on individuals that is presently at issue -- it is the authority of Congress to compel anyone to purchase health insurance," wrote Hudson, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2002 by President George W. Bush...

Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska was one of two pro-life Democrats to find himself declared a traitor by the pro-life movement for supporting the ObamaCare bill that funds abortions.

Despite the unanimous legal analysis of national pro-life organizations, some media outlets and political fact checking web sites indicating the health care reform legislation did not contain sufficient language to prevent abortion funding, Nelson voted for the bill anyway.

Now, the senator is using part of a ruling issued this week against a lawsuit seeking to overturn ObamaCare as a defense of his position.

In the case, brought by Liberty University against ObamaCare for various reasons including abortion, a federal judge appointed by pro-abortion former President Bill Clinton declared the ObamaCare bill free of any abortion funding concerns.

Washington (AP) - The first court conviction of a Guantanamo Bay detainee did little to push President Barack Obama closer to shuttering the island prison, making it increasingly likely his campaign promise will remain unmet by the time his current term expires.

Jurors in New York City on Wednesday convicted Ahmed Ghailani of conspiracy to blow up government buildings in the al-Qaida attacks on two U.S. embassies in 1998, but they acquitted him on more than 280 other charges. He is the only person transferred from Guantanamo Bay for trial since the U.S. began filling the military prison in Cuba eight years ago.

In some ways, the conviction was a vindication for an administration that believes the judicial system established by the Constitution has proved itself capable of handling terrorism cases...

Senate Democrats are reportedly planning to push for a vote on a handful of pro-abortion judicial nominees President Barack Obama has already put forward that have drawn strong opposition from Republicans and pro-life groups.

The vote on the judicial nominees is one of several contentious votes Democrats plan to push through during the lame duck session before the new session of Congress starts with fewer abortion advocates.

The nominees include Goodwin Liu, Edward Chen and Louis Butler — all judicial activists who are supportive of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision responsible for 52 million abortions...

It's a "victory for plain old common sense," says a legal group in describing a court decision to keep the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The case before the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would have stopped recitation of the Pledge in New Hampshire's schools. But Eric Rassbach with The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty tells OneNewsNow the court gave a solid ruling late last week.

"They rejected what is the latest in a series of attacks on the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance -- and specifically [targeting] the words 'under God,'" the attorney explains...