Your Monday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top eight stories for today including the Supreme Court breathed new life into a suit Guam brought against the United States over a massive waste site leaking toxic chemicals into the Pacific Ocean; The EU is faced with a new crisis as it tries to figure out how to punish Belarus for an apparent state operation that forced a jet to land so an opposition activist could be arrested; Prosecutors rested their case in the murder trial of a Mexican immigrant accused of killing an Iowa college student, and more.
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National
1.) In a unanimous decision on Monday, the Supreme Court breathed new life into a suit Guam brought against the United States over a massive waste site leaking toxic chemicals into the Pacific Ocean.
2.) With the 2021 hurricane season bearing down on the U.S. and the most active one on record in American history in the rearview, President Joe Biden announced Monday that his administration will direct $1 billion to states to prepare for disasters.
3.) Gordon Sondland filed a federal complaint Monday seeking $1.8 million in legal fees that he incurred while preparing to testify at the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump.
4.) The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday against a Mexican immigrant who sought to challenge his illegal reentry charge on the basis that it was wrong to remove him in the first place.
Regional
5.) Prosecutors rested their case Monday in the murder trial of Cristhian Bahena Rivera after four days of testimony that they say revealed clear evidence that points exclusively to the Mexican immigrant dairy farm worker as the man who murdered Mollie Tibbetts in June 2018 and left her body in a remote cornfield.
6.) Come September, New York City public schools will open fully in-person, with no option for students to attend school remotely, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday.
7.) Two Texas deputies claim in a federal lawsuit they were fondled and kissed by their drunk supervisor during bachelor party prostitution stings, and another deputy says she was ordered to let herself be sexually assaulted by a masseuse while working undercover.
International
8.) The political crisis in Belarus is dramatically back on the central stage in Europe after authorities in Minsk allegedly orchestrated a military and spy operation to force a Ryanair passenger jet to land so they could arrest a 26-year-old opposition activist and blogger aboard the airplane.
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