Reuters US Domestic News Summary

The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on Jan. 10 related to the impeachment allegations with witnesses to be announced in the coming days, it said in a press release. Trump takes Colorado ballot disqualification to US Supreme Court Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene after Colorado's top court disqualified him from the state's Republican primary ballot for engaging in insurrection leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

US House Republicans plan impeachment hearing for Biden's border chief

A Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives committee next week will advance an effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over allegations he has been derelict in his duty of managing the U.S.-Mexico border, the committee announced on Wednesday. The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on Jan. 10 related to the impeachment allegations with witnesses to be announced in the coming days, it said in a press release.

Trump takes Colorado ballot disqualification to US Supreme Court

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene after Colorado's top court disqualified him from the state's Republican primary ballot for engaging in insurrection leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination, is contesting the Dec. 19 Colorado Supreme Court decision that disqualified him under a constitutional provision barring anyone who "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" from holding public office.

US Justice Dept sues Texas over immigration law

The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it filed a lawsuit against Texas to challenge an immigration law called Senate Bill 4, which the DOJ described as "clearly unconstitutional." The law makes it a state crime to illegally enter or re-enter Texas from a foreign country and gives state and local law enforcement authorities the power to arrest and prosecute violators. It also allows state judges to order that individuals be deported, with up to 20-year prison sentences for migrants who refuse to comply.

New Jersey imam shot dead outside mosque, no suspect or motive identified

A New Jersey imam has died after being shot outside a Newark mosque early on Wednesday morning, and authorities have yet to identify a suspect or motive for the attack, local prosecutors said. There is no indication that the shooting was a bias-motivated crime or an act of domestic terrorism based on the evidence collected so far in the investigation, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said at an afternoon briefing.

US Military Academy at West Point can continue to consider race in admissions, judge rules

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point can continue to consider race for now when evaluating who to admit to the elite military school, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday, rejecting a bid by the group behind the successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to race-conscious college admissions policies. U.S. District Judge Philip Halpern in White Plains, New York, rejected a request for a preliminary injunction sought by Students for Fair Admissions, which was founded by affirmative action opponent Edward Blum.

Names of Jeffrey Epstein's associates set to be released

A U.S. court is expected on Wednesday to start revealing the names of dozens of people with ties to deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein, a move that could unveil new details about his sex trafficking. Epstein socialized with Wall Street titans, royalty and celebrities before pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008. He took his own life in 2019 at age 66 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

US election: Haley's money haul, Trump's full house, Kennedy Jr. off to the races

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley raised $24.5 million between October and December, her campaign said on Wednesday, more than doubling the prior quarter's haul in her latest sign of momentum ahead of the party's primary fight. The total easily beat the $11 million her campaign brought in during the third quarter and the $7.3 million raised in the second quarter, underscoring growing interest in her bid to unseat former President Donald Trump for the party's nomination.

Biden to sharpen attack on Trump in Jan. 6 anniversary speech

President Joe Biden will mark the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S Capitol with a political speech near the historic Revolutionary War site in Valley Forge, where he will make the case that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, his reelection campaign said on Wednesday.

The stop, near the Pennsylvania war encampment where George Washington established headquarters during the Revolutionary War, will be followed by a campaign visit on Monday to Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where a white supremacist in 2015 killed nine parishioners at the historic Black church. In South Carolina, which Democrats moved to the front of the presidential primary calendar this election cycle after Black voters there helped Biden clinch the nomination in 2020, Biden will focus on what the campaign described as rising threats of political violence.

For DeSantis' 2024 campaign, Iowa brings a make-or-break moment

If Ron DeSantis wants to capture the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, it all likely comes down to the next 12 days. On Wednesday, the Florida governor began a breakneck stretch of campaign events in the run-up to Iowa's Jan. 15 caucuses, which will offer the first signal of whether Republican voter preferences match public polling that shows former President Donald Trump as the party's runaway frontrunner.

UN experts sound alarm over planned first US execution by nitrogen gas

United Nations experts urged U.S. authorities on Wednesday to halt the planned execution of a prisoner by asphyxiation using pure nitrogen, saying the untested method may subject him to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or even torture." Kenneth Smith, convicted for a murder-for-hire committed in 1988, is scheduled to be executed in the U.S. state of Alabama on Jan. 25 using the method, which is intended to deprive him of oxygen by using a face mask connected to a cylinder of nitrogen.