Today is Jan. 5, 2024, and here’s what you need to know:

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday formally endorsed U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s candidacy to represent Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, a week after the Silt Republican announced she is dropping her reelection bid in the district she has represented for two terms.

Calling her a “relentless force for conservative governance and a tireless advocate for Coloradans,” Johnson said that he’ll “fully support” her campaign in the new district.

“She has stayed true to her conservative principles and fought to produce real results for Colorado, from defending energy producers to increasing critical resources for our veterans and supporting rural ranchers and farmers,” Johnson said in a statement released by Boebert’s campaign.

“I am proud to endorse and fully support her campaign for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District because we need fighters like Lauren Boebert in Congress.”

As he begins his sixth year in office, Gov. Jared Polis said he plans to emphasize affordable housing, public safety and education, building, he added, on what his administration already accomplished over the years.

The governor also noted the immigration crisis that Denver faces and said he is working with the White House and other governors to find common-sense – and long overdue – solutions.

The federal appeals court based in Colorado agreed last month that a former Denver Public Schools employee failed to show how her termination was connected to her act of speaking out against racial discrimination.

Barbara Lindsay worked at Emily Griffith Technical College and participated in the 2019 hiring process for a new school director. She took issue with comments a member of the hiring panel made about one of the applicants, a Black woman. After Lindsay alerted the applicant, Tisha Lee, about the discriminatory commentary, Lee filed a report with the federal government alleging discrimination.

Shortly afterward, Lindsay was fired from her job.

Although Lindsay attempted to argue the close proximity of her firing with her disclosure to Lee illustrated retaliatory conduct, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit concluded Lindsay had not established an essential component of her legal claim.

The federal appeals court based in Denver agreed on Wednesday that Greeley police did not violate the U.S. Constitution by walking onto a man’s front yard and pulling him out of his vehicle for a traffic infraction without a warrant.

The Fourth Amendment generally requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant before conducting searches and seizures, although courts have developed exceptions to that requirement. The protection applies to homes, as well as “curtilage,” meaning the area immediately surrounding and “intimately linked to” the home.

The question for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit was whether the space directly in front of a house’s window, where a detective stood when he grabbed Orlando Vasquez and ordered him out of his car, was curtilage that fell under the Fourth Amendment’s protection.

No, it was not, a three-judge panel decided.

From the Washington Examiner: Hovering over the 2024 election are redistricting fights in several states that could change the makeup of Congress and aid either Democrats and Republicans in regaining control of the House or the Senate.

States such as Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, and Wisconsin are all facing redistricting fights, with both major political parties securing wins ahead of 2024 and some legal battles over newly drawn maps continuing into the new year.

On the whole, most blue states facing redistricting are expected to become more blue, while red states are expected to lean more red. However, a few states have flipped key areas that could spell trouble for the opposing party next November.