Social Issues

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House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, Texas Republican, emerges from the office of House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, telling reporters that there will not be a budget vote. Time is growing short as House Republicans pushed for passage of legislation to prevent a threatened Treasury default. (Associated Press)

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"My goodness, I thought we've held that the 14th Amendment protects all races," Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Tuesday during arguments on Michigan's constitutional amendment banning affirmative action. "I mean, that was the argument in the early years, that it protected only the blacks. But I thought we rejected that." (Associated Press)

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TOUGH JOB: House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, is "doing as well as any human being can do," according to Rep. H. Morgan Griffith, Virginia Republican. (Associated Press)

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Mitch Fortune (left) and Jake Crouch look over paperwork before applying for a marriage license at the Buncombe County Register of Deeds office in Asheville, N.C., on Tuesday. Register of Deeds Drew Reisinger accepted 17 gay-marriage license requests received during the day, saying he thinks the state's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. (associated press photographs)