Free Republic

A court on Tuesday ordered the state to pay compensation to local Arabs over their claims of having owned land in the Jewish community of Amona, located to the north of Jerusalem. The six Arab claimants were given a total of 300,000 shekels ($85,700), and further the court ordered that if the Jewish residents of the town on the land claimed by the Arab side are not removed by 2015, the state must pay another 48,000 shekels ($13,500), reports AFP. The extreme left legal group Yesh Din praised the ruling, saying "now what is required is evacuation and we're going...

The Michigan Court of Appeals has upheld a law banning automatic wage increases after the expiration of union contracts. A 2011 law banned the practice of salary increases after collective bargaining agreements expired. Before the law, in practice, what was happening was a union contract would lock in raises. After a contract expired, the law required districts make pay increases as if the contract was still in effect, which meant step increases and wages were guaranteed until a new contract was agreed to by both parties. The new law froze salaries until a new contract was reached. Former State Rep....

The U.S. Supreme Court will hand down a decision by the end of this month that could have significant and lasting effects on organized labor in this country. In January, when the high court heard oral arguments in the Harris v Quinn case, the justices clearly were considering a ruling that would, in effect, give public employees the freedom to choose whether to pay dues or fees to a union without being worried about being fired. The case before the court involves Pamela Harris and seven other Illinois personal care providers (home-based caregivers), who challenged a forced unionization that was...

Abu Dhabi Court has issued a verdict in favour of a person who had asked the court to prevent his ex-wife’s sister from visiting his children after the former was sentenced and in an ‘indecent’ case, reported Emarat Al Youm. The man requested that the woman be banned from visiting his children, who lives with his ex-wife. The court said that the father is the legal guardian of his children and he has the right to care for them. Earlier, he had filed a case in Court of Khorfakkan requesting that the family of his ex-wife be prevented from visiting...

A Miami judge has denied a motion from the Maitland-based Liberty Counsel to join the defense of Florida's Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court Judge Sarah Zabel ruled that three organizations represented by the Liberty Counsel had no legal standing to join Miami-Dade Clerk of Court Harvey Ruvin in a lawsuit filed by six South Florida gay couples.

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Court deputies had to break up a physical fight between a Brevard County judge and a public defender after an argument during a hearing on Monday. Judge John Murphy is accused of punching veteran public defender Andrew Weinstock after the two had words during court in which Murphy allegedly pressured Weinstock to get his client to waive his right to a speedy trial. "You know, if I had a rock I would throw it at you right now," Murphy tells Weinstock. "Stop pissing me off. Just sit down." "You know I'm the public defender. I have...

If You Want To Fight, Let’s Go Out Back and I’ll Just Beat Your Ass’ BREVARD COUNTY • VIERA, FLORIDA – Judge John Murphy and Bevard County public defender Andrew Weinstock exchanged heated words during court today in which Murphy allegedly pressured Weinstock to get his client to waive his right to a speedy trial.

The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that enhanced penalties for the possession of a legal firearm while in possession of illegal drugs do not violate the States new protections of the right to keep and bear arms. 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...

A Chinese court on Friday convicted a mining billionaire said to have links with former security tsar Zhou Yongkang of murder and sentenced him to death. Liu Han led private company Hanlong, which once launched a billion-dollar bid for an Australian firm. He and his brother Liu Wei were found guilty of "organising and leading a mafia-style group", murder and other crimes, the Xianning Intermediate People's Court said. They and three accomplices were sentenced to death.

MILWAUKEE, WI — The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that it is not a violation of constitutional rights if police break down a citizen’s door, search the home, and confiscate firearms, so long that they believe it is in the citizen’s best interest. A Doctor’s Concern The lawsuit stems back to an incident that occurred on May 22, 2011. A psychiatrist, Dr. Michelle Bentle, phoned police to report that a patient had expressed a suicidal thought during an outpatient appointment; the woman had received some bad news and privately expressed grief during a difficult appointment. At approximately...

Milwaukee police who forced their way into a gun rights advocate's home without a warrant, took her for an emergency mental evaluation and seized her gun were justified under the circumstances and protected from her civil rights claims, a federal appeals court has ruled. "The intrusions upon Sutterfield's privacy were profound," Judge Ilana Rovner wrote for three-judge panel. "At the core of the privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment is the right to be let alone in one's home." But the court also found, that on the other hand, "There is no suggestion that (police) acted for any reason other...

Marina Baer watched her father get dragged away by a police officer after he violated the two-minute rule at a school board meeting in Gilford, New Hampshire. The dad, William Baer, was speaking out against the sexually graphic content found in a book assigned to his young daughter. Earlier this week, 14-year-old Marina confronted the school board over the incident, telling members: “I honestly don’t feel safe around you people.” “I just watched my father get arrested because he broke the two minute rule, at a board of education meeting,” she said. “This just shows that you resort to force...

A federal appeals court heard arguments on Thursday that Obamacare is unconstitutional because it is a tax that originated in the Senate rather than the House and thus violates the Origination Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The case, Sissel v. Health and Human Services, was argued before a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals with two jurists recently appointed by President Barack Obama and the other by President Bill Clinton. Appearing before the panel, Timothy Sandefur, co-counsel for the Pacific Legal Foundation that launched Sissel, said the House bill that became the Affordable Care Act in the...

GILFORD, NH, May 6, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The father of a Gilford High School student was arrested at a school board meeting on Monday night after objecting that the school had assigned his 14-year-old daughter to read a pornographic book without his knowledge or consent. William Baer, an attorney who moved to New Hampshire from New Jersey, registered his complaint about the book Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, which includes a graphic depiction of sex between two teenagers, at the local school board meeting.

The police are allowed to walk up to a house and knock on the door in an attempt to speak to residents inside. But if no one answers, how long can they stay at the door? Not for as long as 45 minutes, holds the Court of Appeals of Indiana in J.K. v. State. The court bases this conclusion on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Florida v. Jardines, which held that a knock-and-talk is permitted by implied social custom but that other steps such as bringing a drug-sniffing dog to the front steps go too far. From the...

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...