memeorandum: Breaking: Rep. Gerlach Will Not Seek Reelection (Brittany Foster/PoliticsPA)

3:05 PM ET, January 6, 2014

Top Items:

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

Court stops Utah gay marriages (UPDATED) — UPDATE 1:16 p.m. State officials said on Monday that they are evaluating the legal fate of Utah same-sex couples who already have been married. A total of 950 marriage licenses have been issued in the state to gay and lesbian couples …

Discussion: Power Line, ABC News, Washington Post, Law Blog, Advocate, Taylor Marsh, National Review, Towleroad News #gay, Mediaite, The Right Scoop, The Volokh Conspiracy and Althouse

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Justices Block Gay Marriage in Utah During Appeal of Case — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday blocked further same-sex marriages in Utah while state officials appeal a decision allowing such unions. — The terse order, from the full court, issued a stay “pending final disposition” …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, ThinkProgress, Liberaland, Outside the Beltway, AMERICAblog News, BillMoyers.com, The Raw Story and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Rick Hasen / Election Law Blog:

No Surprise: Supreme Court Stays Utah Gay Marriage Ruling: What It Means — As I've been predicting, the Supreme Court unanimously put the Utah same sex marriage ruling on hold this morning, pending disposition of the issue in the Tenth Circuit. — This is no surprise.

Discussion: ABC News, BuzzFeed and Law Blog

Irin Carmon / msnbc.com:
Court reviews Texas abortion restrictions

Discussion: Daily Kos

Floyd Abrams / Wall Street Journal:
Abortion Rights as a Free-Speech Flashpoint

Discussion: Law Blog and The Volokh Conspiracy

Linda Greenhouse / New York Times: Crack Cocaine Limbo

Salt Lake Tribune:
Supreme Court halts gay marriage in Utah

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Hot Air

CNN:

First on CNN: Liz Cheney to abandon Senate bid — New York (CNN) — Liz Cheney, whose upstart bid to unseat Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi sparked a round of warfare in the Republican Party and even within her own family, is dropping out of the Senate primary, sources told CNN late Sunday.

Politico:

Liz Cheney: ‘I have decided to discontinue my campaign’ — Liz Cheney is ending her campaign for Senate in Wyoming, the Republican announced in a statement early Monday morning. — Citing health concerns in her family, Cheney said the issues arising prompted her to end her GOP primary challenge to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.).

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, American Prospect, The Daily Beast, Esquire, CNN, Outside the Beltway, Washington Monthly, The Week, The Raw Story, Washington Wire, Casper Star-Tribune and Balloon Juice

Jeff Zeleny / ABC News:
Liz Cheney Abandons Uphill Fight in Wyoming Senate Race, Citing Family Health Problems

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Fox News:
Liz Cheney dropping out of Wyoming Senate race

Discussion: PennLive.com, Taylor Marsh and Sister Toldjah

Molly Ball / The Atlantic Online:

The Agony of Frank Luntz — Frank Luntz does not want the buffet. We are on the top floor of the Capitol Hill Club, the members-only Republican hangout a block from the Capitol, where a meaty smell is emanating from steam trays. Today's main course is ham, and Luntz shakes his head.

Discussion: ABC News, Booman Tribune, The Impolitic, Mediaite, TheBlaze.com, Talking Points Memo and Roger Ailes

Eliana Johnson / National Review:

Rachel's Show — MSNBC, the left-leaning cable-news network, has settled on one solution to its recent problems. It now has an executive reviewing scripts before they go on the air. The role, which has fallen to Rich Stockwell, a former executive producer of The Ed Show and Countdown …

Discussion: Mediaite, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, LifeNews.com, Taylor Marsh, TVNewser, The Hugh Hewitt Show, Washington Free Beacon, TheBlaze.com and alicublog, more at Mediagazer »

Ron Johnson / Wall Street Journal:

I'm Suing Over ObamaCare Exemptions for Congress — If the president wants to change the health-care law, he must ask Congress to do it. — On Monday, Jan. 6, I am filing suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin to make Congress live by the letter of the health-care law it imposed on the rest of America.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Plum Line, Liberaland, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, CNN, The PJ Tatler, Sister Toldjah, The World's Greatest …, Right Wing News, Betsy's Page, American Spectator, CBS DC, The Volokh Conspiracy, National Review and VodkaPundit

Sam Baker / NationalJournal.com:

Obamacare Can't Fail ... ... because the White House won't stop watering down its definition of success. — Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has moved the goalposts on the Obamacare playing field. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) — The standard of success for the Affordable Care Act keeps getting weaker.

Discussion: First Read

Bernie Becker / The Hill:
Johnson to sue over O-Care contributions

Discussion: thenorthwestern.com and National Review

Brittany Foster / PoliticsPA:

Breaking: Rep. Gerlach Will Not Seek Reelection — PA-6 Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-Chester) will not seek reelection in 2014. — “Nearing the end of my sixth term in the House and following 12 years of public service in the Pennsylvania House and Senate, it is simply time for me to move …

Discussion: Roll Call, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, The Daily Caller, Taegan Goddard's … and NBCNews

Maggie Haberman / Politico:

HILLARY CLINTON'S SHADOW CAMPAIGN — Early last summer in her Georgian-style home near Washington's Embassy Row, Hillary Clinton met with a handful of aides for a detailed presentation on preparing for a 2016 presidential campaign. — Three officials from the Democratic consulting firm …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, TIME, Yahoo! News, Washington Free Beacon, Hot Air, The Week, Taylor Marsh, CNN and TalkLeft

Noam Scheiber / The New Republic:

How Obamacare Actually Paves the Way Toward Single Payer — Last week the liberal documentary-maker Michael Moore prompted indigestion across the progressive wonk community by pronouncing Obamacare “awful.” In a New York Times op-ed, he bemoaned the way the president's law preserved …

Discussion: Questions and Observations and National Review

Sam Webb / Daily Mail:

Feeling glum? Well it is Blue Monday: Rain, debt and divorce make it worst day of the year — You've finished all the mince pies, the weather is terrible, Christmas ended up being horribly expensive and most of us are back to the daily grind. — So it wouldn't come as a surprise if you had started to feel down in the dumps.

Discussion: Gothamist, The Daily Caller and The PJ Tatler

ThinkProgress:

One Of The Steubenville Rapists Has Been Freed After 9 Months — Ma'lik Richmond, one of the two young football players who was found “delinquent” of having raped a young girl in Steubenville, OH, last year, has been freed from his sentence at a juvenile detention facility.

Discussion: WTRF-TV, Americans Against the …, Global Grind and The Raw Story

Michael Wolff / USA Today:

The unbeatable Roger Ailes — The Fox News chief continues to crush his cable news competitors. — Why would you work in the cable news business? Does anybody look their best in cable news? The people in front of the camera look extreme, demented, desperate or vapid.

Discussion: Politico, Mediaite, No More Mister Nice Blog, Business Insider, TVNewser, Capital New York and TheBlaze.com, more at Mediagazer »

Max Boot / Wall Street Journal:

How Al Qaeda Terrorized Its Way Back in Iraq — As the country edges closer to civil war, much of the blame goes to Prime Minister Maliki—and the White House.

Discussion: Weekly Standard and Instapundit

Eric Holthaus / Quartz:

How global warming can make cold snaps even worse — The cold air pushing toward America's heartland is of a duration and magnitude rarely seen since record-keeping began in the 1870s. In Minneapolis, forecasters warned that all-time wind chill records could be broken, with a stunning -65ºF predicted for Monday morning.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Weasel Zippers, Pirate's Cove, Real Science and Climate Depot

Michael Wines / New York Times:

Colorado River Drought Forces a Painful Reckoning for States — LAKE MEAD, Nev. — The sinuous Colorado River and its slew of man-made reservoirs from the Rockies to southern Arizona are being sapped by 14 years of drought nearly unrivaled in 1,250 years. — The once broad and blue river …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Ed O'Keefe / Post Politics:

Unemployment insurance extension lacks GOP support — A bipartisan plan to once again provide federal unemployment insurance for more than 1 million Americans appears to be falling short of the Republican support needed to clear a key procedural vote scheduled for Monday evening in the Senate.

Discussion: Politico, The Hill, GovBeat, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Daily Kos and Hot Air

National Review:

Sensible on Weed — Launching 17 million “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, Colorado has become the first state to make the prudent choice of legalizing the consumption and sale of marijuana, thus dispensing with the charade of medical restrictions and recognizing the fact that …

Discussion: Yahoo! News and Pirate's Cove