Your Tuesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top CNS stories for today including thousands of people crowded into central London to express their dislike of President Donald Trump; Planned Parenthood won the first round in a legal battle to keep Missouri’s only abortion clinic open; Russia and Ukraine returned to the International Court of Justice for Kiev to argue that the United Nations’ highest court has jurisdiction to hear its claims that Moscow illegally funded rebels in eastern Ukraine, and more.
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National
1.) In Trafalgar Square, a 16-foot-tall robot of Donald Trump sits on a golden toilet, pants down, and tweets. A blimp of a baby Trump wearing diapers floats over protesters’ heads. Thousands of people crowded into central London on Tuesday to express their dislike of the American president.
2.) Back for Day 2 of an oversight hearing on the government’s use of facial-recognition software, lawmakers were left momentarily and uncharacteristically speechless Tuesday as an auditor at Homeland Security detailed the FBI’s database of 640 million faces, a number that is twice the population of the United States.
Regional
3.) Planned Parenthood won the first round Tuesday in a legal battle to keep Missouri’s only abortion clinic open, after a St. Louis judge quashed subpoenas seeking the testimony of four doctors in the state’s bid to pull the clinic’s license.
4.) Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced Tuesday a special legislative session this summer to push for changes to state gun laws after 12 people were killed last week in a mass shooting at a Virginia Beach government building.
5.) An attorney for a lawmaker who helped create Alabama’s ethics statutes argued Tuesday before the state’s high court that prosecutors misinterpreted the law when they charged the former state House speaker for his business dealings while in office.
6.) The homeless population is growing faster than the rate people can be housed, according to a sobering report released Tuesday by Los Angeles County officials.
International
7.) Russia and Ukraine returned to the International Court of Justice on Tuesday for Kiev to argue that the United Nations’ highest court has jurisdiction to hear its claims that Moscow illegally funded rebels in eastern Ukraine.
8.) Opening with a quotation from “The Social Network,” an EU magistrate called Tuesday for Facebook to face expanded obligations when it comes to deleting defamatory content posted by its users.
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