The Federal Government has been rocked by revelations Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce may not have been validly elected. Barnaby Joyce is the latest to be caught by uncertainty over his citizenship - telling Parliament he may be a dual citizen of New Zealand because his father was born there. Mr Joyce is staying on as Deputy PM while the High Court determines his eligibility, but the Opposition believes he should stand aside immediately. The case could have huge implications for the Coalition, which holds the Lower House with a slim one seat majority.

A fresh stoush has broken out between the Federal Government and a Melbourne council over its decision to cancel Australia Day celebrations. The Yarra Council in Melbourne's inner north last night became the first in the country to abandon Australia Day in solidarity with Indigenous people. The Prime Minister says he is deeply disappointed by the decision, and is accusing the council of breaching its duties.

For the first time, the long-term outlook for the Great Barrier Reef is downgraded to "very poor", with the impacts of climate change, including coral bleaching and record-breaking warm water, deteriorating its overall health.

The Northern Territory Government is trying something new to entice remote school students back to class at the start of Term 3 just in time for the head-count that determines how much school funding comes from Canberra.

Rural independents are proving a difficult test for the Coalition in this election. But the pathway to parliament is harder than it might seem.

Police charge a woman with common assault after the Prime Minister is egged while meeting with delegates from the Country Women's Association in Albury, on the NSW-Victorian border.

Energy policy is confusing. There are no shortage of acronyms and the policies change almost as often as the leaders do. Here we've tried to answer your questions.

Aged care advocates say policy, regulatory and funding systems have not kept pace with the changing needs and expectations of the growing number of older Australians.

Regional seats proved the toughest battleground for the Coalition at the NSW state election, and with just days to go until the federal poll the pressure remains.

Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer says the three-week early voting period is bad for democracy, particularly in regional Australia.

Instead of storing or throwing out the stationery bought for the last federal election, this time the Australian Electoral Commission is donating it to Indigenous health and education organisations.

Angry protesters have called for the sacking of the Federal Water Minister and hurled an effigy of him sitting on a toilet into the Murray River.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is asking Parliament for a "big stick" to threaten energy companies with. Here's how it could work.

The Commonwealth is investigating how to respond to the ACT's decision to allow personal cannabis use, and may opt to overturn the new law, which allows Canberrans to possess up to 50 grams of marijuana.

A Federal Court judge finds the Registered Organisations Commission's investigation into donations made to the activist group in 2006 when former opposition leader Bill Shorten was leading the union was not politically motivated, but it was launched on a "flawed"basis.

Health Minister Greg Hunt says he has "serious concerns" and demands to see the "evidence" the ACT considered before deciding to legalise cannabis in Canberra from next year.

Chinese telco giant Huawei urges the Federal Government to reconsider its ban on the company providing equipment to Australia's 5G mobile network, describing claims it answers to Beijing as "unfounded attacks and smears".

An estimated 75,000 backpackers working, or that have worked in Australia, could be back-paid hundreds of millions of dollars after the Federal Court ruled the so-called backpacker tax invalid.

A father who threatened to kill a Federal Circuit Court Judge in a late night, expletive-laden phone call walks free from a Far North Queensland court.

A federal inquiry will examine the crisis at Earle Haven on the Gold Coast, as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk declares state-owned aged-care homes will have nurse-to-patient ratios fixed.

The family at the heart of the "Home To Bilo" campaign will remain in Australia for at least another 24 hours as a legal argument about the immigration assessment of two-year-old Tharnicaa continues.

A patent application has been granted which Meat and Livestock Australia fears will have a chilling effect on genomic research in Australia's cattle industries.

Bill Shorten draws a rockstar welcome in enemy territory, Scott Morrison argues with Labor over its support for a Coalition policy and Clive Palmer is personally, yet noticeably, absent from the campaign trail.

Fresh from his tour of the United States, Prime Minister Scott Morrison heads to Queensland to pledge more money to support drought-affected communities.

Hopes are raised in drought-stricken towns that the Federal Government is on the cusp of delivering a stimulus package, with local mayors urging a generous spend.

The ABC understands drought-stricken towns will be the target of federal stimulus potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars under a program designed to support regional communities enduring hardship.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In a challenge to federal statutory restrictions on certain types of advertising by public broadcast TV stations, the district court's grant of summary judgment to the FCC is: 1) affirmed in part, where 47 U.S.C. section 399b(a)(1), restricting paid advertisements for goods and services on behalf of for-profit corporations, was not an unconstitutional speech restriction under the intermediate scrutiny standard; 2) reversed in part, where sections 399b(a)(2) and (3), restricting public-issue advertisements and political advertisements, were unconstitutional speech restrictions under intermediate scrutiny, as there was no evidence of harm to a substantial governmental interest.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - In an action by a Virginia non-profit corporation organized under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code to provide "accurate and truthful information about the public policy positions of Senator Barack Obama," contending that it was "chilled" from posting information about then-Senator Obama because of the vagueness of a Commission regulation, 11 C.F.R. section 100.22(b), and a Commission policy, published at 72 Fed. Reg. 5595 (Feb. 7, 2007), relating to whether plaintiff has to make disclosures or is a "political committee" (PAC), the District Court's judgment is affirmed where: 1) neither the regulation nor policy are unconstitutionally broad and vague in violation of the First and Fifth Amendments; and 2) it correctly applied the "exacting scrutiny" standard applicable to disclosure provisions.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In this case, the district court's judgment in favor of defendants Federal National Mortgage Association and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, finding them statutorily exempt from state and local taxation of real property transfers and finding that Congress had the constitutional authority to exempt defendants from such taxation, is affirmed, where: 1) the transfer taxes at issue here are excise taxes, and the statutory carve-outs allowing for taxation of real property encompass only property taxes, not excise taxes; 2) because Congress had power under the Commerce Clause to regulate the secondary mortgage market, it had power under the Necessary and Proper Clause to ensure the preservation of defendant organizations by exempting them from state and local taxes; and 3) the exemptions do not violate the Tenth Amendment.

(United States Federal Circuit) - Held that a teacher working for the U.S. Department of Defense Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools failed to file a timely petition for review of a decision removing her from the federal service. The teacher, who argued that her procedural due process rights were violated when she was fired from her job teaching on a military base, petitioned for review of an arbitrator's decision. However, the Federal Circuit concluded that her petition for review was not timely filed and thus dismissed it.

(United States Second Circuit) - The district court's order reciprocally suspending defendant-attorney from the practice of law before that court based on an order of the Connecticut Superior Court, is affirmed, where: 1) defendant received adequate notice of the charges; 2) defendant's other due process challenges to the state court proceedings are either meritless or, at most, concern harmless error; and 3) defendant also has not shown, by clear and convincing evidence, that there was a "substantial infirmity in the proof" supporting the state court disciplinary order.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In consolidated petitions for review brought by various power companies of FERC determinations that various energy companies committed tariff violations in California during the summer of 2000, the FERC determinations are affirmed where: 1) it did not arbitrarily and capriciously, or abuse its discretion in finding that electric sellers Shell Energy North America, LP, MPS Merchant Services, Inc., and Illinova Corporation violated the Cal-ISO tariff and Market Monitoring and Information Protocol; 2) FERC's Summer Period determinations regarding APX, Inc., and BP EnergyCo. were not arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion; and 3) because FERC's remedial order is not final, the panel lacked appellate jurisdiction over it.

(United States Second Circuit) - Denying a petition for review by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation seeking to vacate two orders of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorizing a company to construct a natural gas pipeline in New York and determining that the Department waived its authority to provide a water quality certification for the pipeline project under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Affirming the district court dismissal of an action brought under diversity jurisdiction by the LA Lakers against an insurer when it denied coverage and declined to defend them in a lawsuit alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act because the court agreed that the lawsuit was an invasion of privacy suit that was specifically excluded from coverage.

(United States Second Circuit) - Denying the petition for mandamus by an insurer that had paid millions on an Employee Theft Insurance policy when the insured company was found to have engaged in corrupt activities such as obtaining bribes and kickbacks from subcontractors to a government contract it held because, even if they had overcome various procedural obstacles, the company's criminal conduct and, by extension, that of the insurer, precluded them from obtaining restitution from an implicated employee, but vacating and remanding an order dismissing the insurer's petition in the employee's forfeiture proceeding because the district court failed to determine whether the company's unclean hands kept it from an equitable remedy.

(United States First Circuit) - In a case arising out of the near-collapse of the mortgage-backed securities market, alleges that various rating agencies falsely gave out triple-A ratings to mortgage-backed securities they knew were far riskier than indicated by their pristine ratings, the District Court's dismissal of plaintiff's claims on jurisdictional grounds is reversed where it erred in finding that it lacks statutory power to transfer this action to another federal court in which personal jurisdiction over certain defending parties may be met.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Held that the Federal Trade Commission Act could support an order compelling an online payday lender to pay more than $1 billion in monetary relief for unfair business practices. Two of the judges on the Ninth Circuit panel filed a concurring opinion to suggest that the court should rehear the case en banc to reconsider relevant circuit precedent.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Held that Fannie Mae is not a consumer reporting agency and thus could not be sued over a false credit report. Consumers alleged that the government-sponsored mortgage market entity had provided false information about their credit history via a software tool it provides for mortgage lenders to use. In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit concluded that Fannie Mae was entitled to summary judgment because it did not fall within the definition of a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

(United States Second Circuit) - Held that thirteen collection agencies violated federal law in collecting payday loan and other debts. Affirmed summary judgment in favor of the Federal Trade Commission in this civil enforcement action against the collection agencies and their co-owners.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In an enforcement action brought by the Federal Trade Commission, affirmed a preliminary injunction freezing the assets of companies that allegedly had made deceptive representations regarding loan modification services.

Colorado's cannabis industry is allowed to remain open to provide "critical" services during the coronavirus pandemic, but because marijuana is a federally controlled substance, dispensaries and other businesses are ineligible to receive stimulus funds to help offset the economic impacts caused by COVID-19.

The restaurant industry predicts that as many as 30% of all Denver restaurants and 22% statewide may permanently go out of business if they can’t open before the end of May.

The restaurant industry predicts that as many as 30% of all Denver restaurants and 22% statewide may permanently go out of business if they can’t open before the end of May.

The U.S. Justice Department can not withhold millions of dollars in federal funding to Colorado law enforcement agencies by attaching immigration-related terms and conditions to securing the grants according to a federal judge's ruling.

In some cases, cities and counties have been hesitant to spend the emergency appropriations, because the federal government hasn't told them exactly how to.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Held that the Federal Trade Commission Act could support an order compelling an online payday lender to pay more than $1 billion in monetary relief for unfair business practices. Two of the judges on the Ninth Circuit panel filed a concurring opinion to suggest that the court should rehear the case en banc to reconsider relevant circuit precedent.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Held that the Louisiana Real Estate Appraisers Board's petition for review was premature in a case where the Federal Trade Commission had charged it with adopting an unlawful policy that restrained trade. Dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.

The restaurant industry predicts that as many as 30% of all Denver restaurants and 22% statewide may permanently go out of business if they can’t open before the end of May.

A 21-year-old Denver man was sentenced on Thursday to eight years in federal prison for a carjacking and burglarizing two gun stores.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser on Wednesday forcefully pushed back on new federal campus sexual assault rules which would bolster the rights of the accused, promising to fight the U.S. Department of Education in court.