Top Eight
Your Tuesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top eight stories for today including California fired back on the Trump administration’s eleventh-hour attempt to gut the Endangered Species Act before the president leaves office; A slew of nominees to critical positions in Joe Biden’s Cabinet came before Congress; Kansas asked a 10th Circuit panel to preserve a law specifically targeting individuals who lie to gain access to animal processing plants for undercover investigations, and more.
Sign up for the CNS Top Eight, a roundup of the day’s top stories delivered directly to your inbox Monday through Friday.
National
1.) A dozen states and a coalition of environmental groups brought federal lawsuits Tuesday to halt the Trump administration’s parting shot at environmental protections for a thousand species of migratory birds.

2.) The soon-to-be 46th president of the United States is getting his administration off the ground Tuesday as a slew of nominees to critical positions come before Congress.

3.) On the last full day of his presidency, Donald Trump’s yearslong effort to shut down Obama-era clean air protections targeting power plants went up in smoke in the D.C. Circuit.

Regional
4.) California fired back on the Trump administration’s eleventh-hour attempt to gut the Endangered Species Act before the president leaves office Wednesday.

5.) The state of Kansas asked a 10th Circuit panel on Tuesday to preserve a law specifically targeting individuals who lie to gain access to animal processing plants for undercover investigations.

International
6.) On its way out the door, the Trump administration on Tuesday accused the Chinese government of committing genocide, strongly denouncing its treatment of the Uighur people and other minorities.

7.) A man convicted of fraud in the Netherlands should be given a new trial, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday, flagging the Dutch court’s bar against witness cross-examination.

8.) The European Court of Human Rights told Russia on Tuesday that it’s inhuman and degrading to put prisoners in handcuffs when they are let out of their cells in maximum-security prisons.
