Your Friday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top CNS stories for today including a coalition of 20 states asked a federal judge to block President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border; A federal judge in Maryland became the third to block the Trump administration’s decision to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census; Chicago said it will sue “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett to recover over $130,000 it spent investigating the alleged hate crime against him that the city maintains was a hoax, and more.
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National
1.) Calling President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border a “threat to our democratic institutions,” a coalition of 20 states asked a federal judge on Friday to block the action as unconstitutional.
2.) More than two years have passed since International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda first found “reasonable basis to believe” that U.S. military forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan and at CIA black sites. Bensouda confirmed Friday that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo retaliated against her by revoking her visa.
3.) Less than three weeks before the Supreme Court weighs the issue, a federal judge in Maryland on Friday became the third to block the Trump administration’s decision to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census.
4.) California condors will soon glide through the skies in Oregon, Nevada and Northern California, if a government plan to expand the birds’ range into their original territory becomes reality.
5.) American employers added 196,000 new jobs in March, dwarfing the paltry gains from the month before and showing that businesses are still hiring despite worries about an economic slowdown.
Regional
6.) Chicago said it will sue “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett to recover over $130,000 it spent investigating the alleged hate crime against him that the city maintains was a hoax.
7.) An Iowa judge ordered state prison officials to stop barring inmates’ access to materials that contain non-sexually explicit depictions of nudity while a lawsuit brought by 13 inmates is heard by the trial court.
8.) A Russian bank owned by a former North Carolina congressman had its license stripped Friday by regulators in that country based on claims that it regularly violated anti-money laundering rules.
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