SUPREME COURT // Senate Democrats are signaling that they will filibuster a Supreme Court nominee who isn’t “mainstream” — which sounds like just about anyone Donald Trump would nominate. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said: “We are not going to make it easy for them to pick a Supreme Court justice.” In 2013, Democrats ended the filibuster for Cabinet posts and federal judges — but kept it in place for Supreme Court nominations. http://cvote.it/2i8E2ZG
SUPREME COURT // Politico reports that the Trump transition team has identified eight front-runners to replace late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Here are profiles on these eight possible nominees. http://cvote.it/2i8A8Qo
115TH CONGRESS // Republicans scrapped a plan to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics — after a public outcry, and tweets from President-elect Donald Trump. http://cvote.it/2i8nH74
CATHOLIC // Wealthy abortion backers could use Ireland as a model to change pro-life laws in other Catholic countries. http://cvote.it/2b0N4IC
POLL // Gallup poll finds conservatives still outnumber liberals, but by a narrowing margin. A new poll shows that 36% of Americans are conservative, 34% moderate, and 25% liberal. In the 1990s, only 17% of Americans identified as liberal, and 40% of Americans identified as conservative. http://cvote.it/2i8sqFL
CULTURE // Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he’s no longer an atheist. http://cvote.it/2i8yRc6
CATHOLIC // Shared Communion with Protestants would be blasphemy and sacrilege. http://cvote.it/2i8C0c0
WORD OF THE DAY // It’s a New Year. So we’re trying something different, and swapping out On This Day for the Word of the Day, where we examine different words used in the political world. Today’s word is reconciliation – A legislative process where the Senate considers a budget bill with just 20 hours of legislative debate. The reconciliation process means that the budget bill cannot be filibustered, and thus the bill can pass with a simple majority vote, instead of 60 votes.
SAINT // Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton – http://cvote.it/DailySaint
DAILY READINGS // Today’s readings – http://cvote.it/Daily-Readings
WITNESS // ‘We refuse to be baited’: ‘Fixer Upper’ star Chip Gaines breaks silence after BuzzFeed attack. http://cvote.it/2i8GW0n