Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says members of Congress need to get themselves a copy of the Federalist Papers — and make sure they read it.

According to attendees, Scalia adopted a professorial, occasionally playful tone on Monday while addressing members of Congress and staff behind closed doors at an event organized by GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann and the Tea Party Caucus.

Scalia drew criticism ahead of the event for attending what was perceived as a partisan gathering. However, members of both parties say the event had more in common with a law school seminar than a pep rally.

Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, who attended, says Scalia implored lawmakers to study their role. She says he also said he does not view the Constitution as a living document.

Gov. Mitch Daniels has appointed new judges in two central Indiana counties.

The governor's office says Daniels appointed J. Jeffrey Edens as judge of the Boone Circuit Court. Edens succeeds Justice Steven David, who was appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court in September. Edens has been serving as judge pro tempore since David's appointment.

Edens is a former Boone County chief deputy prosecutor and past president of the Boone County Chamber of Commerce.

Daniels also appointed David Riggins as a Shelby County Superior Court judge. Riggins succeeds Judge Russell Sanders, who announced his retirement in August.

Republican Joe Miller said he won't stand in the way of Sen. Lisa Murkowski being certified the winner of Alaska's U.S. Senate race, but he vowed to not end his legal fight over the state's handling of the vote count.

Miller's announcement late Sunday paves the way for Murkowski, the incumbent and a write-in candidate, to be officially named winner of the race.

He said he wants to ensure Alaska has full representation when senators are sworn in for the new term of Congress on Jan. 5.

U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline last month said the state courts were in a better position, at least initially, to decide who had won. He barred the state from certifying the results until the "serious" legal issues raised by Miller were addressed and said he'd remain available for Miller to argue any outstanding claims once the state courts had their say.

On Wednesday, the Alaska Supreme Court refused to overturn election results favoring Murkowski, saying it found "no remaining issues raised by Miller that prevent this election from being certified."

Earlier this month, Beistline said Alaska should have a senator in place when Congress' new term begins, even if that means later having to replace that person when all legal disputes are eventually resolved.

The population continues to shift from Democratic-leaning Rust Belt states to Republican-leaning Sun Belt states, a trend the Census Bureau will detail in its once-a-decade report to the president. Political clout shifts, too, because the nation must reapportion the 435 House districts to make them roughly equal in population, based on the latest census figures.

The biggest gainer will be Texas, a GOP-dominated state expected to gain up to four new House seats, for a total of 36. The chief losers — New York and Ohio, each projected by nongovernment analysts to lose two seats — were carried by Obama in 2008 and are typical of states in the Northeast and Midwest that are declining in political influence.

Democrats' problems don't end there.

November's elections put Republicans in control of dozens of state legislatures and governorships, just as states prepare to redraw their congressional and legislative district maps. It's often a brutally partisan process, and Republicans' control in those states will enable them to create new districts to their liking.

A federal appeals court is set to hear arguments on whether California's same-sex marriage ban is constitutional in a hearing to be televised nationally.

The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco will hear arguments Monday on Proposition 8. A trial court judge overturned the voter-approved ban as a violation of gay Californians' civil rights in August.

The panel will first consider if the group that put the measure on the ballot is eligible to appeal since its members aren't responsible for enforcing marriage laws. Outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown refused to challenge the ruling.

The panel will then hear arguments on the proposition's constitutionality.

The Justice Department reviewed newly found e-mails sent by a Bush administration lawyer and stands by a conclusion that the attorney did not commit professional misconduct in authorizing CIA interrogators to use waterboarding and other harsh tactics, a department letter shows.

The review of the additional e-mails did not alter the earlier assessment that the lawyer, John Yoo, merely had exhibited poor judgment, according to the letter to the House and Senate judiciary committees. The letter was obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The content of the newly found e-mails was not described in the letter. Department officials, however, briefed congressional staffers on the matter last Friday after making the recovered e-mails available to the two congressional committees for review, the letter said.

The issue of Yoo and missing e-mails arose in one of the major lingering investigations into the counterterrorism policies of former President George W. Bush's administration.

Liberal Democrats had pressed for action against the former Justice Department lawyers who wrote the so-called torture memos — Yoo and Jay Bybee.

An initial examination by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility found that Bybee, now a federal appellate judge, and Yoo, now a law professor, had committed professional misconduct. However, the Justice Department's top career lawyer reviewed the matter and disagreed.