A contentious federal civil rights trial is slated to begin Monday that will determine whether hundreds of thousands of people with felony convictions will be able to vote this fall in the swing state of Florida.

On one side of the case is Florida, along with a slew of other states supporting it from the sidelines.
On the other, hundreds of thousands of people who have completed their sentences but currently can't vote because of one thing they lack: money.

The much-anticipated class action trial comes a year and a half after Florida voters overwhelmingly approved Amendment 4 to the state's constitution, which automatically restores voting rights to most people with felony convictions after they complete "all terms of their sentence."

New York has delivered a major blow to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) continued push for Democratic power.

Democrats on the New York state Board of Elections decided Monday to cancel the party's presidential primary, which had already been pushed from April back to June 23 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That leaves Sanders without a chance to grab any delegates in the state, despite his insistence on staying on the ballot to secure more standing within the party.

Sanders suspended his 2020 run last month and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, but still wanted his supporters to vote for him so his delegates could "exert significant influence over the party platform and other functions" at the Democratic National Convention. But Doug Kellner, one of the two Democratic commissioners on the elections board in New York, concluded Sanders' suspension "ended the real context for the primary election." "Joe Biden is the only candidate and therefore he is effectively the winner of the New York primary," Kellner said, so holding the primary would be "unnecessary and frivolous" during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Irish Times' Fintan O'Toole had a rather brutal column over the weekend on Donald Trump's presidency and its impact on global perceptions of the United States. "Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger," O'Toole wrote. "But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity."
The award-winning columnist added that it's easy to "feel sorry for Americans" because we're struggling during crisis conditions "with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful."

O'Toole's indictment of the American president came the day after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ran this similarly unfortunate report.

Usually straitlaced and solemn in his delivery of up-to-the-minute health advice, Australia's Chief Medical Officer stifled giggles when asked about US President Donald Trump's latest suggested treatments for coronavirus.

The video of the exchange is online, and it was hard not to cringe while watching it. A journalist quite fairly summarized Donald Trump's comments about possible research into treating the virus with ultraviolet light on disinfectant injections, and asked, "Given that this is coming from the president of the United States -- an influential person -- is there any scientific basis to either of these propositions?"

Over 80 scientists, including prominent climate experts, are out with an open letter endorsing Joe Biden just ahead of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.

Why it matters: The letter comes as Biden is seeking to consolidate support among progressives who prefer Sen. Bernie Sanders' more aggressive climate platform.

What they're saying: "We are confident that, unlike President Trump, Joe Biden will respect, collaborate with, and listen to leaders in the scientific community and public health experts to confront the existential climate crisis and other environmental threats," the letter states.

Since Super Tuesday, four general election trial heat polls have been released that break down the results by age. Biden, who beats Trump in all four surveys, is the leader among young voters in all of them, usually by blowout margins.

CNN has Biden winning the under-35 vote over Donald Trump, 64% to 33%. For Quinnipiac, it’s 59% to 30%. YouGov and Emerson published data for the under-30 vote. For YouGov, Biden was up 55% to 23%, and in Emerson, it’s 56% to 44%.

How does that compare to the last two presidential elections? Regarding Hillary Clinton’s performance, Biden does generally better. In the 2016 exit poll, she beat Trump 55% to 36% among under-30 voters, and 51% to 41% among voters in their thirties.

When you look at the CNN and Quinnipiac numbers, Biden also appears to be meeting Barack Obama’s 2012 standard—among voters under 30, he beat Mitt Romney 60% to 37%. And even if he’s a little behind Obama’s pace with young voters in the YouGov and Emerson polls, Biden is outperforming Obama with the senior citizen vote. Obama lost the 65-and-over vote by 12 percentage points, while Biden wins with seniors in every March poll except Emerson. And in that one, he only loses by four. In other words, Biden has broader generational appeal than Obama.