Democrats have filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to halt a redistricting rule by Virginia's top court. The state court had invalidated a ballot measure that would have given Virginia Democrats an additional four winnable U.S. House seats. Virginia voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment last month that let Democrats redraw political lines in time for the November elections. That move was in response to mid-decade redistricting in Republican states pressured by President Donald Trump. The appeal is a long shot because the Supreme Court tries to avoid second-guessing how state courts interpret their state constitutions.

In a rare bipartisan effort for a deeply divided Congress, the Senate has passed a broad bill to make U.S. housing more accessible and affordable. The bill passed on Thursday would reduce regulations, regulate corporate investors and expand how housing dollars can be used to build affordable homes and rentals. It now heads back to the House, which passed a separate version earlier this year. It is unclear whether President Donald Trump would sign it after declaring last weekend that he won't sign any new measures unless Congress passes legislation that would require voters to show proof of citizenship.

A call to overturn the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide is on the agenda Friday for the justices' closed-door conference. Among the new cases the justices are expected to consider is a longshot appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples following the court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. Davis had been trying to get the court to overturn a lower court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney's fees to a couple whom she denied a marriage license. Clarence Thomas is the only justice to call for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling.