Free Republic

US Marshal Shoots Defendant in Federal Court A U.S. marshal shot and critically wounded a defendant on Monday in a new federal courthouse after the man rushed the witness stand with a pen at his trial in Salt Lake City, authorities said. Defendant Siale Angilau was hospitalized with at least one chest wound, FBI spokesman Mark Dressen said. The witness wasn't hurt. Angilau was one of 17 people named in a 29-count racketeering indictment filed in 2008 accusing gang members of conspiracy, assault, robbery and weapons offenses.

Submitted by Simon Black via Sovereign Man blog, In the Land of the Free, people grow up hearing a lot of things about their freedom. You're told that you live in the freest country on the planet. You're told that other nations 'hate you' for your freedom. And you're told that you have the most open and fair justice system in the world. This justice system is supposedly founded on bedrock principles-- things like a defendant being presumed innocent until proven guilty. The right to due process and an impartial hearing. The right to counsel and attorney-client privilege. Yet each...

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A story that sounds like a movie script is slowly grinding its way to trial. All of the 29 defendants in the massive corruption case involving suspended State Senator Leland Yee and reputed gangster Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow appeared in federal court Thursday. With so many defendants, lawyers, and documents, the judge is trying to set up a system to manage what could be an unwieldy trial. What makes it even harder is that not everyone's on the same page. The frustration is beginning to show. There are 29 defendants, even more lawyers, a 137 page...

Demonstration against Neo-Nazism in Dresden (13 February 2012) When I was being trained as a peace officer, the subject of searching or "frisking" citizens was addressed several times.   Some of the training seemed to be  more about how to finesse the legal boundaries than the necessity of respecting citizens' rights.   I vividly remember one instructor saying: "I have never heard of a judge throwing out a case where a weapon was actually found." The pendulum seems to be swinging back the other way. From AP at FindLaw.com: The judges ordered that the officers' discovery of the loaded pistol carried...

In 2012, the voters of Louisiana approved a constitutional amendment to the state Constitution that removed the constitutional provision that gave the State the power to regulate concealed weapons.   It added the requirement that the court use the strongest level of judicial review, strict scrutiny, for Amendment 2 cases.   There is a a good discussion of the history behind this amendment at the Volokh Conspiracy, by David Kopel.  The amendment passed with over 73 percent of the vote. The court has already upheld bans on the possession of handguns by minors without parental approval and on felons on...

It took more than 400 years, but the infamous Lancashire Witches have finally got justice. The city of Lancaster, where 12 were convicted and 10 of them hanged in 1612, corrected one of history’s most celebrated miscarriages of justice with a re-trial in a busy shopping centre. Panels of jurors invited to sit in judgement on the case through the day returned a not guilty verdict. The “witches” of Pendle, including rival matriarchs Demdike and Chattox, were fitted up. A bit late, maybe. But at least the poor souls who were rounded up around Pendle Hill and subjected to a...

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld Texas' tough abortion restrictions that have led to the closure of nearly 20 clinics around the state, saying the new rules don't jeopardize women's health. A panel of judges at the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court judge who said the rules violate the U.S. Constitution and served no medical purpose. Despite the lower court's ruling, the appeals court already had allowed some rules to go into effect while it considered the case. The latest decision means more regulations will begin later this year, as scheduled, and sets...

A frustrated chief justice told Kenyans on Tuesday that even witchdoctors could help them resolve their disputes without taking each other to the overburdened courts. Willy Mutunga, a respected lawyer, was appointed in 2011 to reform a judiciary widely seen as in the pay of the political elite and to cut red tape, at a time when many Kenyans had lost confidence in the courts. Opening a new court building in Kiambu county near Nairobi, Mutunga said he was concerned that the growing demand for court services was adding to a backlog of thousands of lawsuits.

Abu Ghaith is on trial in Manhattan federal court for conspiring to kill AmericansJurors in the trial of alleged Al Qaeda operative Suleiman Abu Ghaith on Monday watched videos of the defendant warning of a "storm" of airplane attacks a month after Sept 11, 2001.

If the most disturbing, if underreported, news from yesterday, was Obama's "modification" of NSA capabilities, which contrary to his earlier promises, was just granted even greater powers as phone recording will now be stored for even longer than previously, then this latest development from the Supreme Court - one which some could argue just voided the Fourth amendment - is even more shocking. RT reports that the US Supreme Court has ruled that police may search a home without obtaining a warrant despite the objection of one occupant if that occupant has been removed from the premises. With its 6...

When a hypertotalitarian banana republic takes another turn for the gigasurreal, even Elon Musk is speechless. In the most glaring example of how farcical idiocy has become the new normal, we will remind readers (especially those who do not follow us on twitter), of the following blurb from last night:

Industry groups and Republican-led states are heading an attack at the Supreme Court against the Obama administration's sole means of trying to limit power-plant and factory emissions of gases blamed for global warming. As President Barack Obama pledges to act on environmental and other matters when Congress doesn't, or won't, opponents of regulating carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases cast the rule as a power grab of historic proportions. The court is hearing arguments Monday about a small but important piece of the Environmental Protection Agency's plans to cut the emissions — a requirement that companies expanding industrial facilities or...

You might think the question would be settled by now, but the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to opine on whether the Second Amendment right to “bear” arms for self-defense extends outside the home. We may soon get an answer. Lyle Denniston, writing for the Constitution Daily, reports about two gun rights cases that may get a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court. Both cases, dealing with restrictions on the ability of minors to possess weapons in public, hinge on the difference between the right to “keep” a gun and a right “bear” one. The National Rifle Association thinks the...

PHOENIX — Calling for the closure of Fort Huachuca and personal penalties against generals, Robin Silver and environmental groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court to force a determination on how the post is impacting the San Pedro River. “Ultimately, the question is, can we shut down Fort Huachuca?” Silver said in an interview with Capitol Media Services on Tuesday. Full text available to premium subscribers only.

U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday discussed turning the United States into a right-to-work nation regarding public sector unions. The issue came up in a case related to union "dues skim" issues happening in Illinois, Michigan and other states around the nation. "They were seriously considering reversing the Abood ruling," said Patrick Wright, senior legal analyst with Mackinac Center for Public Policy. "That was the case out of Michigan in which the court established that public sector employees could be forced to pay mandatory agency fees to unions." Mackinac Center attorney Patrick Wright outside the Supreme Court Tuesday. In 1977,...

A drug-dealer who successfully scored a $125,000 stop and frisk settlement was shot and killed by a robber on Staten Island Tuesday night after bragging about the windfall, sources said. Kenrick Gray, 34, was brutally blasted in the head around 6:15 p.m. outside 140 Park Hill Avenue in Stapleton after flaunting his riches in recent months, police said. His pal, Noland Whistleton, 41, was also fatally shot in the leg and torso during the botched robbery, cops said. Police collared suspect Darren Brown, 27, cowering in the shower of his girlfriend’s Staten Island home Wednesday afternoon in connection with the...

What if you had to pay for justice? What if you couldn't afford it? Would you be left with lawlessness, clutched in the grip of oppression? The makers of the independent documentary film Divorce Corp. seem to think so, as they charge the family court system with being "a dark corner of the judicial system where fiefdoms and tyrants still thrive..." First-time writer and director Joseph Sorge experienced the complexities of the family law system -- observing the injustices practiced in the family courts. Through his research he discovered that divorce affects nearly 50 percent of American households and 41...

A District of Columbia federal judge rejected a lawsuit Wednesday that challenged tax credits for Obamacare coverage in the 36 states with federal-run exchanges – one of the most significant remaining legal fights over President Barack Obama’s health care law.The four individuals who brought the lawsuit, Halbig v. Sebelius, had argued that the IRS overstepped its legal authority by allowing federal-run exchanges to provide tax credits for people who purchase health insurance. They contended that the Affordable Care Act only allows for state-run exchanges to access such credits and that Congress purposefully designed the law that way to incentivize states...

Nothing less than the boundaries of executive power are at stake Monday as the Supreme Court considers whether President Obama violated the Constitution during his first term. Oral arguments slated for Monday will center on a trio of recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that were deemed unconstitutional by lower courts. If they uphold the decision, experts say the justices could endanger hundreds of NLRB decisions. Even more significant are the ramifications for future presidents, with the court poised either to bolster or blunt the chief executive’s appointment powers. “Rulings like this have implications that last for...

The Senate is poised to confirm Robert L. Wilkins to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit — the final battle in a bruising war between the White House and Senate Republicans over the "second highest court in the land." The D.C. Circuit deals with cases against the federal government. Anyone who has a complaint with a regulatory agency or wants to challenge an excess of the federal government usually winds up there. >snip In November, Obama effectively gained control of the 11-member court when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid triggered the "nuclear option" — reducing the threshold...