South Carolina is fighting back against the federal government for blocking its new voter ID law.

The Palmetto state sued the Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. federal court, seeking a declaratory judgment determining that the law does not violate civil rights.

"South Carolina's photo identification law does not bar anyone from voting, but merely imposes on voters a responsibility to obtain an approved photo identification card and to bring it to the polls," the state's complaint said.

Last year, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed a law passed by the state legislature requiring that registered voters produce a state-issued ID, or a federal substitute such as a passport, at the polls in order to cast a ballot.

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Updated at 11:58 p.m. ET

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum will win the Missouri primary and Minnesota caucuses, CBS News projects, putting him back in contention for the GOP nomination.

With Minnesota and Missouri under his belt, Santorum now has three victories in the GOP race -- as many as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. He also overshadows former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as the conservative alternative to Romney.

Speaking from his Missouri campaign headquarters in St. Charles Tuesday night, Santorum took aim at both Romney and President Obama, making the case that he would be a stronger Republican nominee than Romney.

"I don't stand here to clam to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney," he said. "I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama."

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Updated at 9:05 p.m. ET

The doors have closed at Missouri polling precincts and caucus locations in Minnesota and Colorado, where voters will weigh in tonight on the Republican presidential nomination.

Officially, a total of zero delegates will be awarded after Tuesday's contests: The Colorado and Minnesota caucuses are the first step in a long process to assign delegates, and the Missouri primary is considered a "beauty contest," since delegates will be awarded after the state's March 17 caucuses. Still, the nominating contests could give some indication of which candidates have lasting momentum.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney could have the advantage. Romney, who handily won the Florida primary and Nevada caucuses last week, easily won both Colorado and Minnesota in the 2008 Republican presidential primaries. In Minnesota, Romney should also benefit from the fact that independents are permitted to participate in the caucuses. Romney also has the frontrunner status going into Tuesday, after winning three of the first five contests.

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Republicans are keeping up the pressure on the Obama administration to walk back its new rule on birth control coverage, with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell warning today, "If they don't, Congress will act."

"Make no mistake: the Obama administration's decision to force religious hospitals, charities, and schools to comply with a mandate that violates their religious views is abhorrent to the foundational principles of our nation," McConnell said on the Senate floor.

The Obama administration is requiring employers to provide full health care coverage for contraception as part of its health care reforms. The rule exempts houses of worship like churches or synagogues, but other nonprofits with religious affiliations -- for instance, like a Catholic university -- will have to comply. Those institutions are being granted an extra year to comply with the rule.

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At a White House-sponsored science fair on Tuesday, President Obama lauded participating students for their excellence in fields like science, math and technology, and emphasizing his belief that it's equally important to recognize students with scientific achievements as it is the Super Bowl-winning football team.

"If we are recognizing athletic achievement, we should also be recognizing academic achievement and science achievement," he said. "If we invite the team that wins the Super Bowl to the White House, then we need to invite some science fair winners to the White House as well."

Meeting with a group of about 100 students at the White House, Mr. Obama examined the students' creations -- which ranged from a Skype robot on wheels to a dissolvable sugar packet.

"It's not every day that you have robots running all over your house. I'm trying to figure out how you got through the metal detectors," said Obama. "I also shot a marshmallow through an air gun which was very exciting."

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Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich on Tuesday decried the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for striking down California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage -- both of them targeting the judiciary system for invoking what Gingrich described as a "radical overreach" of power.

Prop. 8 was a California ballot measure passed in 2008 that amended the state's constitution to make same-sex marriage illegal. (The California Supreme Court had ruled in 2008 that same-sex couples legally had the right to marry.)

"With today's decision on marriage by the Ninth Circuit, and the likely appeal to the Supreme Court, more and more Americans are being exposed to the radical overreach of federal judges and their continued assault on the Judeo-Christian foundations of the United States," Gingrich said in a statement.

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News Analysis

At a press conference in Iowa shortly before Christmas, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich was asked if we would hear more from his wife Callista as the campaigned moved forward. Gingrich threw the question to Callista, who responded, "If R.C. says yes."

R.C. is R.C. Hammond, Gingrich's campaign spokesman and one of the people that controls the overall message of the campaign. After his wife's reference to Hammond, Gingrich added: "We're waiting for R.C. to unleash her and he's being very measured and paced."

That's something of an understatement. There's no doubt that Callista has been a constant visual feature on the campaign trail: She can almost invariably be seen over Gingrich's left shoulder while he delivers a speech, or trailing behind him as he works a rope line. Yet her role on the campaign trail this far has largely been to be seen and not heard.

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NEW YORK -- At first blush, the announcement that President Obama's campaign is encouraging donors to give to the supposedly outside group supporting his candidacy would appear to violate the laws separating the two organizations. But technically, it is legal, according to the Federal Election Commission and watchdog groups.

In an email to supporters yesterday, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said, "The campaign has decided to do what we can, consistent with the law, to support Priorities USA (Action) in its effort to counter the weight of the GOP super PACs."

Messina announced that White House, cabinet, and campaign officials "will attend and speak at Priorities USA (Action) fundraising events," though neither the Obamas nor the Bidens will do so.

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Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney sought to tamp down expectations Tuesday as voters headed to the polls in three primary states, a sign he is unsure of sweeping all three, especially considering a late surge in the polls by rival Rick Santorum in Missouri and Minnesota.

The Romney campaign released a statement noting that there are no actual delegates at stake tonight. Both Colorado and Minnesota hold caucuses as a first step toward naming delegates to the party's national convention, and Missouri is conducting a beauty contest primary in advance of its caucuses next month. However, the night's results will go far in determining the relative strength of the candidates going forward, and in some cases, how delegates are awarded down the road.

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In an interview with CBSNews.com's Hotsheet Live, Charles Evans Jr. and Dr. Victor DeNoble with CBS' Kaylee Hartung to talk about their new film, "Addiction Incorporated."

The film tells the story of DeNoble, a former scientist at Philip Morris Research Center, who was the first whistleblower within the tobacco industry to communicate in an official capacity that cigarettes are addictive.

"As a scientist the worst thing you could do is not to be able to communicate your findings to other scientists," said DeNoble.

Despite DeNoble's confidentiality agreement, he testified in the 1994 Subcommittee on Health and Environment congressional hearings with seven heads of major tobacco companies.

In his directorial debut, Evans tells the "story of a man who wants to do good through science," he said. Evans noted that he used the tobacco industry's relationship with DeNoble as the backdrop for the telling of his story.

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