Top Eight

Top eight stories for today including the Eighth Circuit ruled university administrators who denied official recognition to a Christian student organization may be held individually liable for violating the students’ First Amendment rights; Former President Donald Trump endorsed a Republican congressman in his bid to unseat Georgia’s secretary of state; The U.S. Supreme Court nixed a challenge to a fishing ban in a massive swath of the Atlantic Ocean, and more.

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National

1.) Two fruit growers waged an uphill battle Monday at the Supreme Court in their challenge of a California law that gives union representatives three hours a day, 120 days a year, to organize farmworkers on the farm’s own property.

This still from video shows labor organizers interrupting work at the California farm Cedar Point in 2015. (Image via Pacific Legal Foundation via Courthouse News)

2.) The U.S. Supreme Court nixed a challenge Monday to a fishing ban in a massive swath of the Atlantic Ocean that the federal government enshrined as the first-of-its-kind marine monument.

Researchers with the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer included this image of an octopus in its collection of images from a 2013 expedition in the canyons that make up the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. (NOAA via Courthouse News Service)

3.) March has been a confidence-shaking month for AstraZeneca, but details emerging Monday about its American drug trials suggest a strong contender for the country’s fourth vaccine against Covid-19.

FILE - In this Sunday, March 21, 2021 file photo a man receives a COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Belgrade, Serbia. Serbia has vaccinated most people with China's Sinopharm jabs, followed by Pfizer, Russia's Sputnik V and recently the AstraZeneca shot. AstraZeneca said Monday March 22, 2021 that advanced trial data from a U.S. study on its COVID vaccine shows it is 79% effective. The U.S. study comprised 30,000 volunteers, 20,000 of whom were given the vaccine while the rest got dummy shots. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

4.) The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider reinstating Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on April 19, 2013, after his arrest in connection to the Boston Marathon bombing attack four days earlier that killed three people and injured more than 260. (FBI via AP)

Regional

5.) University of Iowa administrators who denied official recognition to a Christian organization of business students may be held individually liable for violating the First Amendment rights of the students, the Eighth Circuit ruled Monday.

Macbride Hall at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. (Photo by David Mark from Pixabay via Courthouse News)

6.) Former President Donald Trump on Monday endorsed Republican Congressman Jody Hice in his bid to unseat Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow GOP official who faced Trump’s wrath when he refused to “find” enough votes to overturn the election.

Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., speaks during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on "Legislative Proposals to Put the Postal Service on Sustainable Financial Footing" on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021, in Washington. (Graeme Jennings/Pool via AP)

7.) Plans to reopen New Jersey may be on the back burner as Covid-19 cases continue to rise across the state, Governor Phil Murphy said Monday.

Face coverings adorn a statue in Morristown, New Jersey, dedicated to Seeing Eye co-founder Morris Frank and his guide dog. Since dogs seldom get Covid-19, we'll hold off on asking Buddy to trade that banana for a paper mask. (Courthouse News photo/Nick Rummell.)

8.) Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Masterpiece Cakeshop — albeit narrowly — in a case over a same-sex wedding cake, a transgender woman took the Christian bakery back to a Denver court Monday after the bakery refused to make a birthday cake commemorating her gender transition.

Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips decorates a cake inside his store in Lakewood, Colo., on March 10, 2014. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

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