Your Wednesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top CNS stories for today including the Trump administration’s push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census suffered a major setback when a federal judge issued a second nationwide injunction against the policy; Democrats in the House and Senate unveiled a new bill that would write into law an Obama-era net neutrality rule the Federal Communications Commission repealed in late 2017; A new poll shows two in three American voters disapprove of President Donald Trump using emergency executive powers in order to fund a southern border wall and a supermajority support a recent House bill requiring background checks for all gun sales, and more.
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National
1.) The Trump administration’s push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census suffered a major setback Wednesday when a federal judge issued a second nationwide injunction against the policy, finding it would “threaten the very foundation of our democracy.”
2.) Democrats in the House and Senate on Wednesday unveiled a new bill that would write into law an Obama-era net neutrality rule the Federal Communications Commission repealed in late 2017.
3.) Two in three American voters disapprove of President Donald Trump using emergency executive powers in order to fund a southern border wall and a supermajority support a recent House bill requiring background checks for all gun sales, according to a new poll released Wednesday.
4.) Ahead of a Senate vote next week to reject President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen held firm amid tough questions from Democrats and told lawmakers during a tense hearing Wednesday the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border is real.
International
5.) A resurgent populist right in Europe is clashing with a resurgent populist left, and moderates are floundering. Steve Bannon is sucking up media time and Russian hackers are working to get an election result they like. The electorate is fed up with the status quo and pundits are gushing: “This is the most important election ever.”
6.) Upholding an asset freeze imposed against Hamas, the European General Court rejected an argument Wednesday that the group’s attacks in Gaza are not terrorism but the actions of a legitimate political movement.
7.) Huawei Technologies CFO Meng Wanzhou’s defense team plans to take the Canadian government to task over what she calls abuse of process during her arrest at Vancouver International Airport last year.
Science
8.) Researchers injected a silver lining around the looming black cloud of climate change Wednesday: Even if temperatures climb and sea levels rise as most models forecast, many European countries will be able to keep the lights on thanks to their extensive networks of renewable energy sources.
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