This morning, NSA director Keith Alexander and other intelligence officials testified before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The Committee chairman, Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, convened the hearing to defend the NSA's internet and phone surveillance programs.

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States made it much more difficult for Arizona to disenfranchise voters. In 2004, Arizona voters approved a law which required election officials to reject any voter registration that was not accompanied with proof of citizenship.

Senator Elizabeth Warren is fighting hard for government transparency, and it has nothing to do with the NSA. On Thursday, Senator Warren sent a letter to President Obama's U.S. trade negotiations nominee, calling on the Administration to publicly release documents about the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The Supreme Court ruled that human genes cannot be patented, because they are a product of nature. However, the offered a compromise which allowed synthetic, complementary DNA, known as cDNA, to be protected by patent law, because it is not naturally occurring.