Top Eight

Top eight CNS stories for today including national and state Democratic Party leaders joined the battle in Iowa over absentee ballot request forms that appeared to have been won by the Trump campaign and Republicans; The California Legislature is cramming to pass police reforms, prevent evictions and curb the newspaper industry’s demise; The full D.C. Circuit issued a ruling keeping the prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn alive, and more.

Your Monday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top eight CNS stories for today including national and state Democratic Party leaders joined the battle in Iowa over absentee ballot request forms that appeared to have been won by the Trump campaign and Republicans; The California Legislature is cramming to pass police reforms, prevent evictions and curb the newspaper industry’s demise; The full D.C. Circuit kept the prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn alive, and more.

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National

1.) Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden laid into President Donald Trump on the campaign trail Monday afternoon, accusing him of stoking the flames of hate and division across the country in order to hold onto power.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrives at the Allegheny County Airport, en route to speak at a campaign event in Pittsburgh, Pa., Monday, Aug. 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

2.) The Second Circuit blocked the Trump administration on Monday from rolling back Obama-era monetary penalties on automakers that violate fuel-efficiency standards.

Traffic is backed up heading South on Highway 101 during mandatory evacuations due to predicted danger from the Kincade Fire, in Windsor, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019. The entire communities of Healdsburg and Windsor were ordered to evacuate ahead of strong winds that could lead to erratic fire behavior near the blaze burning in wine country. (Darryl Bush/The Press Democrat via AP)

3.) Keeping the prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn still alive, the full D.C. Circuit sided Monday with the judge who wants to hold arguments on the Justice Department’s bid for dismissal.

FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2019, file photo Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, leaves the federal court following a status conference with Judge Emmet Sullivan, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

4.) House Democrats cannot use the courts to enforce subpoenas, the D.C. Circuit ruled Monday, dealing a critical blow to an investigation of President Donald Trump from the chamber.

FILE - In this Sept. 4, 2018 file photo, White House counsel Don McGahn, listens as he attends a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. A federal appeals court in Washington has revived House Democrats’ lawsuit to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to appear before a congressional committee. But the court's action Friday left other legal issues unresolved with time growing short in the current Congress. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Regional

5.) National and state Democratic Party leaders on Monday joined the battle in Iowa over absentee ballot request forms that appeared to have been won by the Trump campaign and Republicans in two state court rulings last week.

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2020, file photo vote-by-mail ballots are shown in U.S. Postal service sorting trays the King County Elections headquarters in Renton, Wash., south of Seattle. The U.S. Postal Service has sent letters to 46 states and the District of Columbia, warning it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted, The Washington Post reported Friday, Aug. 14. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

6.) In the final hours of an extraordinary session bottlenecked by the coronavirus pandemic, the California Legislature is cramming to pass police reforms, prevent evictions and curb the newspaper industry’s demise into Monday’s agenda.

The California Capitol building in Sacramento. (William Dotinga/Courthouse News)

International

7.) The trial of four men accused of downing Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 six years ago resumed Monday to hear from lawyers for relatives of the victims, who argued the suspects should have to pay damages to family members.

Presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis, rear center, opens the court session as the trial resumed for three Russians and a Ukrainian charged with crimes including murder for their alleged roles in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, at the high security court building at Schiphol Airport, near Amsterdam, Monday, August 31, 2020. Judges and lawyers representing relatives of the 298 people killed are expected to discuss the issue of compensation. (Piroschka van de Wouw/Pool photo via AP)

8.) The latest legal battle over a 2017 blockade of Qatar by its neighbors in the Persian Gulf opened before the United Nations’ highest court on Monday with arguments from the United Arab Emirates.

The judges of the International Court of Justice gathered in the courtroom in The Hague, Netherlands, on Monday, Aug. 31, 2020, to hear virtual arguments in a dispute over a blockade of Qatar. (UN Photo/ICJ-CIJ/Frank van Beek)

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