Top Eight

Top eight CNS stories for today including the Supreme Court ruled against a handful of irregular Electoral College voters who in 2016 voted for a range of candidates of their own choosing; A federal judge ordered the Dakota Access pipeline to be shut down in one month; The European Union’s highest court heard yet another case involving the Polish judicial system, and more.

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National

1.) The Supreme Court on Monday ruled against a handful of irregular Electoral College voters who in 2016 voted for a range of candidates of their own choosing, rather than their party’s nominee.

In the 2016 election, Donald Trump had 304 votes from the Electoral College to Hillary Clinton's 227 votes. Because of so-called faithless electors, there were three votes cast for Colin Powell. Bernie Sanders, Ron Paul, John Kasich and Faith Spotted Eagle split the remaining four votes.

2.) The Dakota Access pipeline must shut down by Aug. 5, a federal judge ruled Monday, handing the oil industry and Trump administration a resonant defeat after a long-fought battle with Native American tribes.

A Lakota Sioux woman waits for her sisters on Dec. 4 near the rope stretched across State Highway 1806 near the Standing Rock Camp. The rope was a few hundred yards from the barricade erected by law enforcement on the Blackwater Bridge where several demonstrations had taken place. (Laura Lundquist/CNS)

3.) The U.S. Army soldier accused of plotting with a satanic neo-Nazi cult to ambush his unit in a mass-casualty attack pleaded not guilty on Monday morning to the six charges of his indictment.

In this photo taken from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, in Akcakale, Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey, smoke billows from a fire inside Syria during bombardment by Turkish forces Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019. Turkey launched a military operation Wednesday against Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria after U.S. forces pulled back from the area, with a series of airstrikes hitting a town on Syria's northern border.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

4.) Refugees don’t have to be denied asylum in Mexico before applying in the United States, the Ninth Circuit ruled Monday, tossing aside a Trump administration rule.

Activists for migrant rights surround a group of Honduran asylum seekers camped on U.S. soil at San Diego's Otay Mesa port of entry, seen from Tijuana, Mexico, on Dec. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Regional

5.) After California broke a daily coronavirus testing record over the holiday weekend, its Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday said hospitalizations remain alarmingly high as Covid-19 continues to spread throughout the state’s largest counties.

People visit Ocean Beach during the coronavirus outbreak in San Francisco, Sunday, July 5, 2020. Californians mostly heeded warnings to stay away from beaches and other public spaces during the long weekend as state officials urged social distancing amid a spike in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

6.) With voting conducted almost entirely via the mail, Republicans hope the New Jersey primary on Tuesday will help them push back against 2018’s Blue Wave.

A child plays at Liberty State Park, with the Statue of Liberty stands in the background, in Jersey City on Saturday, May 2, after New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy reopened parks, which were closed for over a month because of the coronavirus pandemic. (Courthouse News photo/Nick Rummell)

International

7.) The European Union’s highest court heard yet another case involving the Polish judicial system on Monday, in the latest clash between the EU and the central European country over the rule of law.

On Oct. 8, 2018, government opponents with signs reading "Constitution" protest an overhaul of the justice system and the forced early retirement of Supreme Court judges aged 65 and above, before the court's building in Warsaw, Poland. The European Union's top court ordered Poland on Oct. 19, 2018, to immediately suspend the politically charged legal change. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

8.) Further investigation into the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 can be made, but not into alternative scenarios about what caused the plane to be shot down over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, killing all 298 aboard, a Dutch court ruled Friday.

FILE - In this Thursday, July 17, 2014 file photo, people walk amongst the debris at the crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Grabove, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky, File)

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