Free Republic

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment protects the right to openly carry a gun in public for self-defense, rejecting a claim by Hawaii officials that the right only applies to guns kept at home. The ruling by a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, makes the San Francisco-based court the sixth U.S. circuit court to interpret the Second Amendment this way and could set the issue on a path toward the U.S. Supreme Court, which has not taken up a major gun rights case since 2010. The...

The most liberal appeals court in America could soon be getting a Republican makeover if President Trump and Senate GOP leaders are able to fill seven open seats with conservative picks. Standing in their way is a wall of Democrats hellbent on protecting the long-standing leftward lean of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The stakes are sky high because of the size, caseload and clout of the court. If Trump is successful in getting young, ideologically conservative nominees through the confirmation process, he could significantly alter the court’s DNA for decades to come. “Adding seven conservatives to the court...

Oregon Sens.Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden have announced plans to block President Trump’s nominee for the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In a letter to the White House on Thursday, the two Democratic senators said they do not intend to return blue slips for Ryan Bounds “or any other nominee that has not been selected through our judicial process.” “As you are aware, in May we wrote you to explain Oregon’s long bipartisan tradition of working together to identify the most qualified candidates for judicial vacancies,” they wrote. “As senators charged with the task for advice and consent...

All of these rulings by the court against Trump's executive orders are an overstepping of their judicial authorities. The judges are acting illegally. In Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution the text states that Congress has the authority to “constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court.” In Article III of the U.S. Constitution, when referring to the inferior federal courts, it states that it is Congress who may from “time to time ordain and establish.”

The White House seems poised to issue a revised executive order restricting visas from seven terrorist havens until sufficient vetting procedures are in place. Yet one related issue has not been fully explored: The way the arguments over the original order may have been sabotaged in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. On its way to upholding an injunction issued against the original executive order, the Ninth Circuit failed to even discuss the relevant federal immigration provision that authorized the president’s action. At oral argument, the government was represented by career lawyer August Flentje. As Paul Mirengoff at Powerline...

This week’s ruling by the activist U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, aka the 9th Circus was another indicator of the absolute fantasy world liberals inhabit every day. Judges Canby, Clifton and Friedland upheld a nationwide temporary injunction on President Trump’s executive order. In its unanimous decision, the three-judge panel denied the Department of Justice’s bid for an emergency stay, saying that the president’s previous remarks about a Muslim ban potentially could be used as evidence, saying rights attached to non-citizens and saying the government did not present evidence that nationals from the affected countries perpetrated attacks in...

As judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals weigh the legality of President Trump’s immigration executive order, a Republican push to split up the controversial court -- and shrink its clout -- is gaining steam on Capitol Hill. Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona introduced legislation last month to carve six states out of the San Francisco-based court circuit and create a brand new 12th Circuit. They argue that the 9th is too big, too liberal and too slow resolving cases. If they succeed, only California, Oregon, Hawaii and two island districts would remain in the...

President Trump’s extreme vetting policy is a temporary, legal and smart use of his national security and immigration powers, the Justice Department said in its legal defense, filed Monday evening, that argues the courts are meddling with the separation of powers. The administration’s lawyers are asking an appeals court to lift a lower judge’s restraining order that has defanged most of Mr. Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order imposing the new vetting policy. The lawyers said immigration law gives Mr. Trump expansive powers to decide whom to let into the U.S. and whom to block, and said that while people who...

Last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) in a discovery dispute with the National Abortion Federation. CMP is the group of citizen journalists responsible for producing the undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s practice of selling baby parts. This decision may end up being a costly one for CMP because it allows the National Abortion Federation to attempt to bury the group with discovery requests. Discovery is a pre-trial procedure in which parties can seek to obtain evidence for their case. The National Abortion Federation filed a federal lawsuit in California in...

Diversity and tolerance is a one way street Via The DC Students in a California school district will not be allowed to wear American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo, due to concerns that such displays of patriotism would inflame racial tensions by offending Mexican students on their holiday. The district’s policy concerned many free speech advocates, but was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In response, Tea Party groups plan to protest outside Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill. And they will be wearing American flag T-shirts. “They silenced a symbol of patriotism and freedom in...

BReaking Hot!!! 9th Circus flips lid, says hold the marriages off 'til the case finishes appeals..

The TERRY ANDERSON SHOW.. Articulating the Popular Rage! A warrior in the fight against illegal immigration and those who promote it for over a decade! From the streets of Los Angeles to the halls of congress, Terry has been there. No one has the passion and common sense of Terry Anderson...He is A MUST listen! The BEST one hour of radio you'll find anywhere. Sunday Nights- Listen on the radio! 12-1 AM EDT, 11-12 PM CDT, 10-11 PM MDT, 9-10 PM PDT KRLA - 870 AM - Los Angeles -- KDWN - 720 - Las Vegas -- KFNX - 1100...

San Francisco calls the Catholic Church's teachings hateful, defamatory and insensitive.The liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether a scathing anti-Catholic resolution from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is unconstitutional. The resolution, passed unanimously in 2006, accused the Vatican of operating as a "foreign country" and called the Church's teachings "hateful," "defamatory," "insensitive," "ignorant" and "insulting to all San Franciscans." It was issued in response to the Church's requirement that adoptive children be brought up by families with a mom and dad. "They’re condemning the Catholic Church as 'hateful' and 'harmful,' and that is clearly a...

PHOENIX -- The state will ask a justice of the nation's high court to let county election officials require voters to produce identification for next month's general election. Attorney General Terry Goddard said Tuesday legal papers will be given to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, possibly by the end of the week, asking him to void an order by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals barring the state from enforcing the voter ID provisions of Proposition 200 while a legal challenge to them works its way through federal court. Goddard's move came as the full appellate court refused Tuesday...

Judges and prosecutors make mistakes, a Justice Department lawyer told the Supreme Court Tuesday, but sometimes those errors are so minor that they don't warrant reversing a conviction in a criminal case. A jury convicted Juan Resendiz-Ponce of attempting to enter the United States illegally from Mexico. But the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned Resendiz-Ponce's conviction because his indictment by a grand jury did not set out any specific acts showing how he tried to enter the United States. The omission was so serious that it required automatic reversal of the conviction, the appellate court said. Deputy Solicitor...

An environmental group sued the Bush administration Tuesday over new rules to boost gas mileage requirements for sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, saying the regulations do not go far enough. The Sierra Club, which filed the lawsuit, joined 10 states and other environmental groups in challenging the rules, which would raise gas mileage requirements by 1.8 miles per gallon for the 2008-2011 model years to a fleetwide average of 24 mpg. ~snip~ In the lawsuit, Sierra Club officials said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration failed to follow the law requiring it to set fuel economy standards at the...

Court rules English-only petitions in SoCal recall were unfair Associated Press SANTA ANA, Calif. - Petitions used for the 2003 recall of a Latino Santa Ana school trustee should have been printed in Spanish as well as English, an appellate court has ruled. The trustee, Nativio V. Lopez, had come under fire for seeking exemptions to the state's English-only instruction requirements and was partly blamed for the district's lack of new school construction. He was recalled by 71 percent of voters. The decision Wednesday by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals could be used to force election officials throughout...

In an interesting case study here, a postal worker is allowed to sue the U.S. Postal Service for harrassment because a customer allegedly threatened her (with an implicit reference to the locale being a "redneck town") for being zealous in enforcing postal regulations. Click on the link to see the .pdf file. What is interesting here is that there appeared to be major friction between the postmaster of the town and the customers, resulting in administrative leave against the plantiff.The postal worker in question was, in fact, the postmaster of the office where the incidents occurred. As the highest ranking...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A California city's regulation requiring some distance between exotic dancers and their audience during a performance is constitutional, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday. The San Francisco-based court conceded nude and scantily dressed dancers may be impaired from exercising their rights to freedom of speech by the rule requiring at least two feet (60 cm) between them and their audience, but held it did not entirely ban the performers from conveying an "erotic message." The court held the city of La Habra, near Los Angeles, California, crafted its regulation narrowly to deter...

U.S. Supreme Court Declines Non-Res Cap Review As a purveyor of local, state and national information that may have significant bearing on the management of our fish and wildlife resources and public hunting and fishing opportunities, MWF is reprinting this article supplied to the Arizona Wildlife Federation, from the Arizona Game and Fish Department. U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 10 denied Arizona’s petition to review an appellate court decision regarding the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s 10-percent cap on nonresident hunt-permit tags for bull elk and for deer north of the Colorado River. Arizona’s appeal to the Supreme Court was...