OPIOID VERDICT: According to NBC News: “An Oklahoma judge on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay over $572 million for pushing doctors to prescribe opioids while downplaying the risks of addiction.” The report also points out, “The case was seen as a litmus test for nearly 2,000 pending opioid cases before a federal judge in Ohio, especially as other pharmaceutical companies faced with similar accusations have chosen to settle.” However, The Wall Street Journal editorial board, addressing the lawsuit’s “public nuisance” rationale, opines, “Public-nuisance law is more elastic than product-liability claims because it doesn’t require evidence of direct causation. … The opioid addiction problem is varied and complex, and these days it is largely a problem of illegal fentanyl and meth. It won’t be eased by bankrupting America’s pharmaceutical companies.”

BLUE-STATE OBSTRUCTION: “A coalition of 20 Democratic attorneys general announced Monday they are suing to block the administration’s new rules that would allow immigrant families who are in the U.S. illegally to be detained while their deportation hearings are taking place. The 19 states and the District of Columbia said they are responsible for ensuring the health and safety of children at detention facilities inside their boundaries, so they have standing to sue in order to protect their health.” (The Washington Times)

PURSUING THE DEATH PENALTY: “Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh said Monday that they intend to seek the death penalty against the man accused of gunning down 11 people at a synagogue last year,” NBC News reports. As our Mark Alexander revealed at the time, the suspect “was inspired, in part, because Donald Trump is the most PRO-Israel president since Ronald Reagan.”

IRAN OLIVE BRANCH: On Monday, President Donald Trump declared, “If the circumstances were correct or right, I would certainly agree to” meeting Iran President Hassan Rouhani. He added, “But in the meantime, they have to be good players.” Rouhani is currently not being a good player. According to The Daily Caller, “Iran’s parliament is preparing a bill to sanction top Trump administration officials and their supporters in Congress for what regime officials described as ‘their long animosity towards Iran.’” Rouhani also personally responded, “First the U.S. should act by lifting all illegal, unjust and unfair sanctions imposed on Iran.”

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE: Presidential candidate Joe Biden is an indisputable frontrunner no more, according to Monmouth University polling. In a new survey, “Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and … Biden are currently bunched together in the national Democratic presidential preference contest. … The poll finds a virtual three-way tie among Sanders (20%), Warren (20%), and Biden (19%) in the presidential nomination preferences of registered Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters across the country. Compared to Monmouth’s June poll, these results represent an increase in support for both Sanders (up from 14%) and Warren (up from 15%), and a significant drop for Biden (down from 32%).”

ANOTHER REPUBLICAN BITES THE DUST: “Wisconsin GOP Rep. Sean Duffy on Monday abruptly announced plans to resign from Congress, saying his family recently learned that his soon-to-be born child has a serious heart condition. Duffy … is the father of eight children, with another due in October.” (Fox News)

FEC RESIGNATION: “The Republican vice chairman of the Federal Election Commission resigned Monday, leaving the election oversight agency without enough members to vote on enforcement actions. Matthew S. Petersen [said] that he submitted his letter of resignation … to the White House Monday morning. It said that he will leave the agency by the end of the week. ‘It’s just the right time,’ said Petersen, who has won wide praise for his steady and thoughtful approach to election issues, his dedication to the First Amendment, and battles to fend off the regulation of technology and the internet.” (Washington Examiner)

Closing Arguments

POLICY: The proof is in: Tariffs are hurting the U.S. economy (The Daily Signal)

POLICY: Purchasing a gun from Walmart is not nearly as easy as the Left claims (The New American)

HUMOR: Obama slams greedy rich people from his new $15 million Martha’s Vineyard estate (Genesius Times)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.

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