Free Republic

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is asking a federal judge to reverse a decision by the Biden administration to cancel oil and drilling leases in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge area. The leases were approved by the Trump administration in January 2021 and canceled by the Biden administration last month. The AIDEA said in its lawsuit the cancellation of the seven leases is unlawful for several reasons. The leases are legal and Congressionally mandated, the agency said. The lawsuit said the Department of Interior did not allow AIDEA to correct any issues to keep the leases. "DOI’s unilateral...

Ex-NYPD officer sentenced to record 10 years for Jan. 6 riot Retired New York Police Department officer Thomas Webster leaves the federal courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. Webster was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison for attacking the U.S. Capitol and using a metal flagpole to assault one of the police officers trying to hold off a mob of Donald Trump supporters. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) 1 of 7 Retired New York Police Department officer Thomas Webster leaves the federal courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. Webster was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in...

Oral arguments are set to take place this week, when U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan will have to explain why he has not signed off on the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss its case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. The hearing marks another extraordinary turn in an extraordinary -- and seemingly interminable -- case that has brought pressure upon both the Justice Department and the judge overseeing it. After calling into question the DOJ’s choice to drop Flynn’s prosecution, Sullivan is now in the position of defending his own decision. ~snip~ Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules...

The Trump administration's efforts to stop the use of H-1B workers by IT contractors suffered a major setback in court. This week, a federal judge ruled that the government exceeded the law. Trump administration has been denying H-1B work visa applications for IT contractors through stringent regulation interpretations. The IT contractors sued, claiming the administration's governance was too rigid. This week, the contractors won a significant court victory. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer in Washington, said the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) "exceeded the law" and went too far in its interpretations of H-1B work visa rules. Her...

A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday shot down an attempt by House Judiciary Committee Democrats to link their subpoena for former White House counsel Don McGahn to a separate request for secret grand jury information from the Russia investigation after the Justice Department accused them of trying to "game the system." Normally cases are assigned to judges randomly, which the DOJ said is meant to keep parties from “attempting to game the system” by “shopping” for a judge they like. But in a Tuesday court filing, the department alleged the Democrat-controlled committee was trying to do exactly that by exploiting...

The House Democrats’ lawsuit demanding the government turn over President Trump’s tax returns has been assigned to a judge Mr. Trump appointed to the district court in Washington, D.C. Judge Trevor N. McFadden will get first crack at the case, which could set the standard for how far Congress’s investigative powers extend, and whether the administration has the ability to resist some requests. Democrats say the Treasury Department is defying a legal subpoena and a request under the tax law, which gives the Ways and Means Committee chairman the right to demand to see any tax return.

The last injunction blocking President Trump’s transgender military ban from taking effect was lifted by a federal judge Thursday, moving the administration closer to being able to enforce the policy. In a six-page order issued on Thursday, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland Judge George Russell III wrote that he was lifting his injunction because “the court is bound by the Supreme Court’s decision to stay the preliminary injunctions in their entirety." Though courts have now ruled to lift all four injunctions that had been placed on the policy, advocates for transgender troops say one remains in effect...

The war between our unelected robed masters in the last and least of the three branches of government and the president of the United States continues apace : A U.S. federal judge on Saturday rejected key elements of President Donald Trump’s May executive orders that would make it easier to fire federal employees and reduce their ability to bargain collectively. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson , of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said in a court order that Trump’s orders, which also would reduce the amount of time low-performing employees had to improve their performance before...

Judge Rosemary Collyer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an opinion today declaring that the Obama administration violated the Constitution by funding Obamacare subsidies for which Congress did not appropriate funds. “Congress passes all federal laws in this country,” the judge wrote in her opinion in the case of U.S. House of Representatives v. Burwell. “The Court will enter judgment in favor of the House of Representatives and enjoin the use of unappropriated monies to fund reimbursements due to insurers under Section 1402,” the judge said. …