Top Eight

Your Thursday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top eight CNS stories for today including a panel of federal judges ruled the Trump administration’s latest effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census count is unlawful; Joe Biden continues to hold a commanding national lead against the president with registered and likely voters; A magistrate for Europe’s highest court ruled against bans on the ritual slaughtering of animals without first stunning them, and more.

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National

1.) Days after the government reported a nationwide decline in unemployment and an uptick in available jobs, the Labor Department shared bad news Thursday with its announcement that the population receiving unemployment insurance remains at a high 9%.

One stop operator Vickie Gregorio with the Heartland Workforce Solutions updates a white board outside the workforce office in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday, July 15, 2020, as those seeking employment await their turn outside. Nebraska reinstated job search requirements this week for most people claiming jobless benefits. Those unemployment insurance requirements were suspended in mid-March to help employees who had lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 coronavirus. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

2.) The Trump administration’s latest effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census count is unlawful, a panel of three federal judges ruled Thursday.

Amid concerns of the spread of COVID-19, census worker Jennifer Pope wears a mask and sits by ready to help at a U.S. Census walk-up counting site set up for Hunt County in Greenville, Texas, Friday, July 31, 2020. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

3.) New polling data shows that former Vice President Joe Biden is perceived to have more respect for American troops compared to President Donald Trump, while the former VP continues to hold a commanding national lead against the president with registered and likely voters.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden raises his arm with his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., during the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del. Jill Biden is at left. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

4.) In a one-two punch Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency was hit with two federal complaints over its large-scale plan to protect the Chesapeake Bay, America’s largest estuary.

Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay is the crown jewel of the Eastern Shore and, beyond being an important natural ecosystem, a major economic driver for businesses large and small and in the tristate area. (Courthouse News photo/Brandi Buchman)

Regional

5.) A federal judge in Tennessee issued a preliminary injunction preventing the state from requiring first-time voters to appear in person to cast their first ballot.

FILE - In this July 21, 2015, file photo, Carolyn Yazzie fills in her ballot at the Shiprock Chapter House in Shiprock, N.M., during the Navajo Nation's referendum election. Native American voting rights advocates are cautioning against states moving to mail-in ballots without opportunities for tribal members to vote safely in person. The Native American Rights Fund released a wide-ranging report on voting rights Thursday, June 4, 2020. In it, the group outlined the challenges that could arise as states move to rely more heavily on mail-in ballots. (Jon Austria/The Daily Times via AP, File)

6.) We Build the Wall is breaking down on two fronts – in Manhattan, where its founder is facing a federal indictment, and in South Texas, where engineers say the Rio Grande is washing out the foundation of 3 miles of border wall it financed.

Brian Kolfage, founder of We Build the Wall Inc., speaks at a May 30, 2019, news conference in Sunland Park, N.M., where a privately funded wall is being constructed. Kolfage and former White House adviser Steve Bannon were arrested Aug. 20, 2020, on charges that they and two others ripped off donors to the online fundraising scheme. (Mark Lambie/The El Paso Times via AP, File)

International

7.) World Health Organization experts pleaded for patience Thursday in a news briefing from Geneva only days after a patient injected with a promising antidote fell ill, grinding one large-scale trial to a halt.

A woman wearing a protective face makes her way home with bagfuls of aid, in San Jose Calderas, Guatemala, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020, amid the new coronavirus pandemic. The government’s migrant support agency Conamigua, delivered bags of food and household items to the community of people who have been deported from the United States affected by COVID-19. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

8.) In a legal test case pitting animal rights advocates and far-right politicians against Muslim and Jewish religious leaders seeking to protect halal and kosher meats, a magistrate for Europe’s highest court on Thursday said bans on the ritual slaughtering of animals without first stunning them are unlawful.

A man walks by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)

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