National News at a Glance

Trump’s Pick for Supreme Court Is Brett Kavanaugh

President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, a politically connected member of Washington’s conservative legal establishment, to fill Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s seat on the Supreme Court, setting up an epic confirmation battle and potentially cementing the court’s rightward tilt for a generation. The nomination of the federal appeals court judge, former aide to President George W. Bush and onetime investigator of President Bill Clinton, was not a huge surprise. Kavanaugh’s long history of legal opinions, as well as his role in some of the fiercest partisan battles of the last two decades, will give Democrats plenty of ammunition for tough questions.

A Conservative Court Push Decades in the Making, With Effects for Decades to Come

President Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court on Monday culminates a three-decade project unparalleled in U.S. history to install a reliable conservative majority on the nation’s highest tribunal, one that could shape the direction of the law for years to come. If the president succeeds in confirming his selection, Kavanaugh is expected to join Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch in forming a much more consistently conservative majority than before. That has not happened by accident.

In Texas, a Decades-Old Hate Crime, Forgiven but Never Forgotten

Twenty years ago, James Byrd Jr., chained by his ankles to a pickup truck by three men, was murdered. His family forgave Byrd’s three killers long ago and made peace with Jasper, the small East Texas town where they have lived for three generations. But as the nation faces a spread in bias crime incidents, the family wants to ensure the public remembers one of the worst hate crimes of the 20th century. In the years since Byrd’s death, both state and federal hate crime laws bear his name. And in Jasper, the Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing has announced plans to open a museum.

Judge Declines to Put Weinstein Under House Arrest

At Least 54 Migrant Children Under 5 to Be Reunited With Parents, Justice Department Says

About half the migrant children younger than 5 who were forcibly separated from their parents at the border, 54 of the 102, are set to be reunited Tuesday under a court-imposed deadline, a Justice Department lawyer told a federal judge Monday. The government has compiled a list of the youngest children now in custody around the country in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Judge Dana M. Sabraw of the U.S. District Court in San Diego had set a deadline of Tuesday for reunification; in a conference with lawyers Friday, he did not extend that deadline.

Rikers Inmate Dies After Chokehold Attack, Officials Say

A Rikers Island inmate died Monday after he was choked by another inmate in a mental health wing, according to New York City officials. The name of the inmate who died is being withheld because officials were still trying to reach his family. Natalie Grybauskas, a City Hall spokeswoman, said the inmate was attacked inside a unit for inmates who exhibited mental health issues but have been determined not to have a serious disorder. He was seated when his attacker, whom officials identified as Artemio Rosa, 27, ran up behind him and placed him in a chokehold, she said.

Former Driver Sues Trump for More Than 3,000 Hours of Overtime

For more than 20 years, Noel Cintron was Donald Trump’s personal driver. Cintron says he often worked 55 hours a week. Though his compensation changed over time, it was, he says, typically in the upper five figures. But in a lawsuit filed Monday, Cintron accused Trump and the Trump Organization of failing to pay him more than 3,000 hours of overtime wages — a sum he calculated as slightly more $160,000. According to the lawsuit, Trump and his business also cheated Cintron out of years of vacation time, sick days and expenses — and neglected to give him a raise in more than a decade.