With the ruling, donors can give to as many candidates, parties or PACs as they wish, though the amount can’t exceed the individual caps.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who issued the court’s opinion, said the purpose of laws regulating campaign contributions should be to thwart “quid pro quo” corruption, or when a contributor donates money in exchange for favors. He suggested that by keeping the caps for each donation, corruption in politics will be kept in check.

“Money in politics may at times seem repugnant to some, but so too does much of what the First Amendment vigorously protects,” Roberts wrote in his opinion. “If the First Amendment protects flag burning, funeral protests and Nazi parades — despite the profound offense such spectacles cause — it surely protects political campaign speech despite popular opposition.”

The court’s other conservative-leaning justices, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, agreed with Roberts’ opinion.

Justice Stephen Breyer, in writing the dissent, said the court’s decision “eviscerates” federal campaign finance laws and was “incapable of dealing with the grave problems of democratic legitimacy that those laws were intended to resolve.”

The case has been compared with the historic 2010 Citizens United decision in which the Supreme Court struck down most limits on corporate and union spending in elections on the grounds they violated First Amendment guarantees of free speech.

But Citizens United didn’t touch campaign contribution limits for individuals. Lead plaintiff Shaun McCutcheon, a prominent Republican donor from Alabama, said the $123,200 cap was unfair.

“The Supreme Court has once again reminded Congress that Americans have a constitutional First Amendment right to speak and associate with political candidates and parties of their choice,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who joined McCutcheon in his case.

Eliminating the contribution limits will allow a single donor to give up to $3.6 million through the use of joint fundraising committees, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School.

The White House criticized the ruling: “We are, in fact, disappointed by the decision that was announced today,” said Josh Earnest, deputy press secretary.

Critics say removing the caps would lead to big-money donors gaining even more influence over elections, a scenario they say would lead to corruption in campaigns.

— Sean Lengell, Congressional Correspondent

OBAMA: ‘TRAGIC’ TO SEE MORE ‘SENSELESS VIOLENCE’ AT FORT HOOD

President Obama expressed shock at the “senseless violence” at Fort Hood, calling the mass shooting that took the lives of American troops at their Texas base — far from the battlefield — “tragic.”

“These are folks who make such extraordinary sacrifices for us each and every day for our freedom. During the course of a decade of war, many of them have been on multiple, you know, tours of duty,” Obama said in brief remarks at a White House event to honor Olympic and Paralympic athletes. “To see unspeakable, senseless violence happen in a place where they’re supposed to feel safe — home base — is tragic.”

Army Specialist Ivan Lopez, an Iraq veteran, killed three and wounded 16 before turning a gun on himself at the huge Army base, Army officials said. They added that he had been receiving treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder but had not shown any signs of violence.

Obama noted that it was the “second time that the Fort Hood community’s been affected this way.”

Five years ago, Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 and injured more than 30 in a shooting spree at the base. Hasan was sentenced to death and is awaiting execution.

“We join that entire community in honoring those who lost their lives. Every single one of them was an American patriot,” Obama said. “We stand with their families and their loved ones as they grieve. We are thinking about those who are wounded. We’re there to support them.”

The president vowed that he would do everything to keep the troops safe and look for ways to provide more help to the nation’s military veterans.

“They put on their uniform and then they take care of us, and we’ve got to make sure that when they come home, we take care of them,” he added.

White House press secretary Jay Carney sidestepped questions about the effect the latest mass shooting would have on the nation’s contentious gun-control debate.

“I would urge you to wait until a little more time has passed since we are dealing with the immediate circumstances of this incident,” Carney told reporters.

But he said Obama had long expressed his frustration at the lack of legislation to reduce gun violence.

A bipartisan measure to expand background checks on firearm purchasers failed in the Senate last year.

“We’ll continue to look for ways to implement common-sense solutions to this very challenging problem,” Carney said.

— Meghashyam Mali, Assistant Managing Editor

SENATE PANEL VOTES TO MAKE CIA TERRORISM REPORT PUBLIC

The Senate Intelligence Committee voted to make public a summary of its critical report on the CIA’s interrogation tactics used on terror suspects following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The panel voted 11-3 to send the report’s 450-page summary and 20 conclusions and findings to the White House for declassification.

The Obama administration vowed to quickly release the summary but stressed it would redact any information that harmed national security.

“It’s going to be very interesting to see what comes back,” said Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. “I hope the declassification and redaction is minimal because we worked very hard to do something that we think is very important. I think it should be read.”

The full report — more than 6,000 pages — will remain classified.

The report, lawmakers said, casts an unfavorable light on the agency’s interrogation tactics, which included the now-banned tactic of waterboarding.

“I think people will be shocked at what’s inside,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. “I hope they work quickly because I think people deserve to know.”

The Senate intelligence panel recently accused the CIA of tapping into the committee’s computers used to draft the report. The CIA does not agree with many of the report’s conclusions.

— Susan Ferrechio, Chief Congressional Correspondent

HOUSE PANEL TO VOTE ON CONTEMPT CHARGE FOR IRS’ LOIS LERNER

A Republican-led House panel is set to decide next week whether a former top IRS official should be held in contempt of Congress.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has scheduled an April 10 vote to decide whether to find Lois Lerner in contempt.

Lerner served as the Washington-based IRS official who some lawmakers believe played a key role in the practice of targeting certain conservative and Tea Party groups who were seeking tax-exempt status.

Lerner has twice refused to answer questions before GOP-led congressional committees, invoking the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

But Republicans believe she waived that right by providing a lengthy statement at a hearing last year.

“Documents and testimony point to Lois Lerner as a senior IRS official responsible for conduct that deprived Americans of their rights to free speech and equal protection under our laws,” said committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

“Americans expect accountability and want Congress to do all it can to gather relevant evidence about what occurred and who was responsible so that this never happens again,” he continued. “Ms. Lerner’s involvement in wrongdoing and refusal to meet her legal obligations has left the committee with no alternative but to consider a contempt finding.”

Democrats oppose the GOP’s pursuit of Lerner and are all but guaranteed to vote against the charge.

They say Issa erred in the process by not properly notifying Lerner of the contempt charge, and they have enlisted legal experts who support their view.

“The chairman apparently decided to disregard the opinions of 25 independent legal experts, including two former House counsels and three former clerks to Supreme Court justices, who believe he botched this contempt proceeding,” a Democratic aide on the panel told the Washington Examiner.

The panel is stacked with a GOP majority, which means the contempt charge is likely to pass.

From there, House leaders will have to decide whether to put it on the floor for a vote, as they did with Attorney General Eric Holder in 2012. If Congress finds Lerner in contempt, the matter would be handed over to the Department of Justice.

Holder was found in contempt for failing to turn over documents related to the failed gun-running operation known as Fast and Furious. The matter is now under review by a federal judge.

— Susan Ferrechio, Chief Congressional Correspondent

WHITE HOUSE LAWYER OBJECTS TO DAVID ORTIZ’S ‘SELFIE’ WITH OBAMA

White House officials don’t seem all that outraged by the news that Samsung tricked President Obama into taking a “selfie” with Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz, but the president’s lawyer is looking into the matter.

The selfie of Obama and Ortiz, the slugger known to Red Sox fans as Big Papi, quickly went viral on Twitter after Ortiz shot it at a White House event honoring the team.

White House spokesman Jay Carney, himself a diehard Red Sox fan, retweeted the close-up photo of Papi and Obama grinning broadly, with his caption, “The honor was ours, Big Papi! Go Sawx!”

But news that Samsung orchestrated the photo-op for a social media campaign promoting its line of smartphones put a damper on a seemingly spontaneous shot.

Carney said the White House’s top lawyer is looking into the matter and that Obama did not know he was taking part in Samsung’s advertising when the photo was shot.

“As a rule, the White House objects to the use of the likeness of the president for commercial purposes,” he said. “We have objected in the past [to the practice], and we object now.”

— Susan Crabtree, White House Correspondent

FORMER OBAMA SPOKESMAN PREDICTS ELIMINATION OF EMPLOYER MANDATE

Former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs predicted that the Obama administration would scrap the employer mandate, which already has been delayed twice.

“I don’t think the employer mandate will go into effect. It’s a small part of the law. I think it will be one of the first things to go,” President Obama’s former top spokesman said at the Benefits Selling Expo in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The administration delayed the mandate for a second time earlier this year, giving companies with 50-99 employees until 2016 to offer insurance coverage to their workers or pay a fine.

Critics say the administration granted the extension to limit blowback from an element of the law that would kill jobs.

The White House counters that the employer mandate affects just a small fraction of people, given that most larger companies offer insurance coverage to their workers. Administration officials have resisted calls to eliminate the employer mandate.

“You can make predictions all the time and they turn out not to be true,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said, hitting back at Gibbs’ suggestion.

For his part, Gibbs said Democrats should be open to making improvements to the president’s signature domestic initiative.

“We need to have an honest discussion about improving and tweaking the law,” Gibbs said.

Still, he endorsed the controversial health law.

“Change hasn’t been easy and it won’t be easy,” Gibbs said. “It will be a long time before we know how this will play out. But the law has real potential to work.”

— Brian Hughes, White House Correspondent

WHITE HOUSE: CUBAN TWITTER PROJECT WAS NOT A ‘COVERT PROGRAM’

The White House denied that a U.S government-backed project to create a Twitter-like social media network in Cuba was a “covert program.”

“Suggestions this was a covert program are wrong,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney.

“Congress funds democracy programming for Cuba to help empower Cubans to access more information and to strengthen civil society. These appropriations are public, unlike covert action. The money invested has been debated in Congress,” he continued. The Government Accountability Office reviewed the program in 2013, he added.

The Associated Press reported that ZunZuneo, a Cuban text-messaging network, was created by the U.S. Agency for International Development and was part of a plan to help young Cubans organize and potentially oppose the government.

The network, which the report described as a “Cuban Twitter,” had thousands of followers at its high point, but they were not aware it was a U.S.-government backed project or that contractors had gathered personal information on them.

The report said USAID and its contractors took steps to hide the government’s role in the program, including allegedly setting up front companies and by not telling employees they were working on a program paid for by Washington.

“As you know, USAID is a development agency, not an intelligence agency,” Carney said.

He suggested that there was no attempt to hide the program, but acknowledged that the U.S. had been “discreet” about how it handled the project in Cuba.

“In implementing programs in non-permissive environments, of course the government has taken steps to be discreet. That’s how you protect the practitioners and the public,” he said. “This is not unique to Cuba.”

He sidestepped questions about whether the State Department and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were aware of the program.

— Meghashyam Mali, Assistant Managing Editor

HHS UPDATES MEDICARE ENROLLMENT RULES FOR SAME-SEX COUPLES

The Obama administration said it was updating Medicare rules to allow partners in same-sex marriages to apply for benefits during special enrollment periods.

The Department of Health and Human Services said the Social Security Administration would be able to take applications for special enrollment periods for Medicare Part A and Part B and reduce late penalties for some eligible same-sex couples.

The move is the latest step taken by HHS after the Supreme Court in 2013 struck down a key part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Following the court ruling in U.S. v. Windsor, HHS and other government agencies took steps to ensure that gay couples were treated equally under the law.

“Today’s announcement helps to clarify the effects of the Supreme Court’s decision and to ensure that all married couples are treated equally under the law,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said.

— Meghashyam Mali, Assistant Managing Editor

MOST NEW JERSEY RESIDENTS APPROVE OF CHRIS CHRISTIE BUT REMAIN SKEPTICAL OF ROLE IN BRIDGE SCANDAL

A majority of New Jersey residents approve of Chris Christie’s job as governor, even though many of them believe he was somewhat involved in the bridge scandal.

According to the latest Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press poll, 47 percent of New Jersey residents believe Christie was personally involved in the scandal. Thirty-eight percent believe Christie wasn’t involved.

On top of that, 61 percent believe that the New Jersey governor has “not been completely honest” about the situation.

But Christie, who is considered a presidential contender, has a 51-percent approval rating, a surprisingly high number considering that most residents are not convinced he is telling them the truth.

His standing in the poll has plunged from a whopping 70-percent approval rating in February 2013 after residents rallied behind his handling of Hurricane Sandy.

But he is gradually climbing back to his pre-Sandy approval ratings.

In September 2012, a Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press poll showed Christie earning a 53-percent approval rating and a 35-percent disapproval rating among New Jersey residents.

Christie’s personal ratings, however, have yet to recover — even to his pre-Sandy levels.

In September 2012, Christie enjoyed a 52-percent favorable “general impression” rating. That rating is now at 40 percent, as about 10 percent of New Jersey residents appear to have moved from the favorable column to the “no opinion” column.

— Charlie Spiering, Commentary Writer

JANET YELLEN HIGHLIGHTS WORKERS WITH CRIMINAL RECORDS

A speech by new Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen shows one reason why central bankers normally talk about current events in academic terms and shy away from specifics: Two of the three workers Yellen mentioned in her speech about the weakness of the labor market have criminal records, according to Bloomberg.

Yellen knew about the long-term unemployed workers’ criminal records — one for felony theft, one for heroin possession — the Fed told Bloomberg, but declined to mention them in detailing the obstacles they had faced in finding jobs. About 65 million Americans have some kind of criminal record, the National Employment Law Project estimated in 2011.

Ex-convicts make up a substantial portion of the labor force, but reintegration into the workplace can be more difficult for them than for others. For example, many large U.S. companies perform routine background checks on job applicants to look for convictions.

There is no distinction in federal law between workers with and without criminal records (although the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sometimes prosecutes cases when a company’s hiring policies have a disparate impact on different racial groups). That’s also true for the purposes of the Federal Reserve’s mandate to promote maximum employment — unemployed people who have run afoul of the law need work just as others do.

— Joseph Lawler, Economics Writer

OPENING DAY HOLIDAY OUTSIDE WHITE HOUSE’S ‘STRIKE ZONE’

Sorry, baseball fans. Looks like you won’t get a paid day off to watch Opening Day anytime soon.

Responding to an online petition to make Opening Day a national holiday, the White House said President Obama didn’t have the authority to give baseball diehards what they wanted.

“While we are sympathetic to your pitch to make Opening Day a national holiday, it’s a little outside our strike zone: Creating permanent federal holidays is traditionally the purview of Congress,” said White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest. “So, it’s up to the men and women on Capitol Hill to decide whether to swing at this pitch.”

No word yet on whether lawmakers will rally behind a cause of such national importance — at least to a select few.

Earnest, a fan of the Kansas City Royals, said he hoped the perennial loser would visit the White House as World Series champions in the near future. And Obama would surely like to welcome his beloved Chicago White Sox.

Though it didn’t grant the national holiday, the White House paid tribute to the importance of Opening Day for millions of Americans — and the role that presidents have played in honoring the event.

“For more than a century, American presidents have celebrated baseball’s Opening Day — from President William Taft’s 1910 first pitch from the stands to President Obama toeing the rubber at Nationals Park in 2010,” Earnest wrote.

“Opening Day signals a new beginning, not only for the 30 Major League Baseball teams playing for their shot at a title, but for the millions of fans who will follow the 162-game journey — from ‘Play ball!’ through the last out,” Earnest added.

— Brian Hughes, White House Correspondent

MOMENTUM GROWING FOR PERMANENT MEDICARE ‘DOC FIX’

The No. 2 House Democrat said momentum is building on both sides of the aisle to permanently fix a flaw in a federal payment system that annually threatens cuts to doctors who treat Medicare patients.

“There’s more serious momentum” this year for a long-term fix, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters.

Congress approved a one-year measure to keep a 1997 budget-cutting law from biting too deeply into federal reimbursement payments for physicians who treat Medicare patients. If lawmakers hadn’t acted, doctors would have seen their Medicare payments reduced by about 24 percent.

Letting the so-called “doc fix” expire would save the federal government billions of dollars annually, but some doctors had threatened to stop seeing Medicare patients if their payments were cut.

It was the 17th time Congress has approved a short-term fix to avoid a cut. Some lawmakers from both parties — including Hoyer — opposed the stopgap measure in the hope of finding a permanent solution to the poorly designed Medicare payment formula.

But with cost estimates for a 10-year fix about $130 billion to $135 billion — some $50 billion less than in recent years — Hoyer says lawmakers realize the timing is right for a permanent solution.

“Knowing full well that we’re going to do this annually, and knowing full well the inevitable cost is going to escalate … right now is the cheapest time to do it,” he said.

In the Senate, new Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also has vowed to continue to push for an overhaul of the Medicare physician payment system.

The major stumbling block is how to pay for it. Wyden has suggested using savings from the wind-down of the Afghanistan war. But Republicans say those savings are phony because the troop withdrawal has long been planned. Instead, they have demanded that savings come from President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Some lawmakers have suggested using savings from the automatic “sequester” spending set into motion by a 2011 deal to raise the federal debt limit. But Hoyer is opposed to such a move, saying that is a budgeting “artifice” and a “fraud.”

— Sean Lengell, Congressional Correspondent

WAYS AND MEANS CHAIRMAN DAVE CAMP TO RETIRE

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp said he won’t seek re-election this year after serving 12 terms in the House.

“This decision was reached after much consideration and discussion with my family,” the Michigan Republican said.

House GOP term limits would have prevented Camp from serving again as chairman of the powerful tax-writing committee but wouldn’t have barred him from seeking another term.

“Serving in Congress is the great honor of my professional life,” Camp said. “I am deeply grateful to the people of the 4th Congressional District for placing their trust in me. Over the years, their unwavering support has been a source of strength, purpose and inspiration.

“During the next nine months, I will redouble my efforts to grow our economy and expand opportunity for every American by fixing our broken tax code, permanently solving physician payments for seniors, strengthening the social safety net and finding new markets for U.S. goods and services.”

Camp, an ally of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, released an ambitious tax reform plan earlier this year. It’s uncertain if House Republican leaders, who control the chamber, will move forward with the proposal.

Boehner, who like Camp was elected to the House in 1990, called the Michigan lawmaker “a leader in the fight to increase economic growth.”

“Along with his colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee, the entire House Republican Conference and the whole House, I will miss him,” Boehner said.

But Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel of New York took another position, saying that “yet another senior Republican committee chairman is abandoning John Boehner and his toxic Republican Congress.”

Camp and three other members of the Michigan congressional delegation have said they will step down when their current terms expire in January. Camp is the 23rd House member this Congress to announce retirement who isn’t running for another office.

— Sean Lengell, Congressional Correspondent

BOARD OVERSEEING D.C.’S UNION STATION ISN’T WORKING, WATCHDOG FINDS

A nonprofit board created to oversee and manage Washington’s historic Union Station is not doing its job, a new watchdog report has found.

The Union Station Redevelopment Corp., created by the federal Transportation Department in 1983, is in charge of managing and overseeing the “tourist attraction, retail destination and transportation hub,” according to the report.

The station, which opened in 1908 as a railroad terminal, is a stop for Amtrak as well as for commuter rail services, Washington’s Metrorail service and various bus lines. It is owned by the Federal Railway Administration and run by the redevelopment agency, which is heading up a major renovation project.

However, the redevelopment agency “has not adequately planned for Union Station’s future,” DOT’s inspector general found.

The station’s reserve fund for maintenance is at “risk of depletion and faces a potential shortfall of more than $5 million” by the end of September. But the size of the shortfall can’t be predicted because the condition of “various building components is unknown,” the report said.

The agency has not updated the station’s master plan since 2010, specifically failing to identify funding sources for “key projects or plans of other stakeholders, such as Amtrak,” the IG found.

A study to project the “remaining useful life” of critical parts of the station — including mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems — and how much maintenance on them would cost over time has not been done either, the IG found.

Until the USRC does the study, it “will be challenged to identify, prioritize and plan for costs related to improvements, repairs, and maintenance” for Union Station, the report said.

The IG also found that “limited revenues coupled with debt and escalating and unforeseen costs” are creating huge financial challenges.

Thus, until the Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration take action, “Union Station remains at risk of falling into a state of disrepair that in the past led to the station’s closure and the need for costly renovation,” the IG said.

— Kelly Cohen, Staff Writer