The Week in the Rearview Mirror

The nation watched on Tuesday — and into Wednesday — as Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis and hundreds of reproductive rights advocates stalled proceedings and ultimately defeated controversial abortion legislation.

Davis came off the Senate floor early Wednesday as the national Democratic Party's newest star. But what effect her 11-hour filibuster to stop abortion legislation will have on her political prospects in Texas is an open question.

The state's lieutenant governor was hoping the special session would revive his support among conservatives. It might have done exactly the opposite.

Republicans in the state Senate looked like tourists who wandered into a hostile neighborhood after liberal activists helped derail an abortion bill. But they are still in the driver's seat in the second special session.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed its version of the comprehensive immigration reform bill that would pave the way for citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the country. The bill now moves to the U.S. House, where it faces an uphill battle. 

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declared that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional, a major blow to supporters of oversight of voting laws that they say protect people from discrimination.

In the wake of its decision to strike a section of the Voting Rights Act earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday tossed out two Texas cases on voter ID and redistricting.