Top Eight

Your Wednesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top eight CNS stories for today including President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign sued Nevada over its overhaul of election laws that provide for all active voters to receive mail-in ballots; Democrats announced their 2020 national convention will be almost entirely virtual; A federal judge in Wisconsin heard arguments over proposed changes to election deadlines and rules, and more.

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National

1.) President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has sued Nevada over its overhaul of election laws that provide for all active voters to receive mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic or other emergency, arguing that the newly enacted changes will undermine the integrity of the November election.

2.) Citing the worsening pandemic, Democrats announced Wednesday that their 2020 national convention will be almost entirely virtual, with speakers including presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden appearing via video rather than traveling to Milwaukee as originally planned.

3.) Late last month, President Trump made a pair of changes to the census in rapid succession, excluding undocumented immigrants from political apportionment and bumping up the deadline for in-person interviews. Those changes led a federal judge Wednesday to fast-track the schedule of a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s new policy. 

4.) Public approval of the U.S. Supreme Court is at its highest level since President Barack Obama installed Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the bench in 2009, a Wednesday poll by Gallup shows. 

Regional

5.) Parties from Wisconsin to Washington argued in Madison federal court Wednesday over proposed changes to deadlines and rules for the November general election, as the fight over how to hold fair elections in the midst of an ongoing pandemic reignited from the safety of a videoconference.

6.) On high alert against a second wave of the pandemic that devastated New York City in the spring, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a checkpoint plan Wednesday to ensure that travelers coming from virus hotspots self-quarantine.

7.) The same day Virginia announced over 95,000 total confirmed coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, the state’s governor rolled out a new phone app that notifies people if they have been near someone infected with the virus.

8.) Six weeks and one federal ruling after Election Day, New York primaries yielded two big results Wednesday as the Board of Elections certified that a powerful congresswoman fended off a challenge and a gay candidate defeated a homophobic rival.  

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