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The Obama administration Monday urged the Supreme Court to strike down Texas abortion regulations it said effectively would eliminate access to the procedure for large numbers of women across the vast state. The high court is set to hear argument in March on a 2013 Texas law cracking down on abortion providers by requiring clinics offering the procedure to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers and doctors who perform it to hold admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. (Bravin, 1/4)

Intervening in the Supreme Court's first abortion case since 2007, the administration said the new Texas rules for clinics and physicians who perform abortions are far more restrictive than other regulations upheld by the justices over the years. If allowed to take full effect, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli wrote, the law would close many more of the state's clinics and force hundreds of thousands of Texas women to travel great distances if they seek to terminate pregnancies. ... The administration's "friend of the court" brief siding with the clinics challenging the law comes in one of the most politically charged disputes this presidential election year. (Biskupic, 1/4)

The new year could bring resolution — or at least significant developments — to a long list of high-profile, long-simmering court cases and legal disputes in Texas. Some of the cases have the potential to affect government policies not only in Texas but across the nation — particularly on the hot-button issues of abortion and race relations. (Lindell, 1/4)