Free Republic

A dual citizen of France and Canada pleaded guilty on Wednesday to sending letters containing homemade ricin to then-President Donald Trump at the White House and eight Texas law enforcement officials. Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier sent threatening letters containing the poison in September 2020, according to the plea agreement filed in a Washington, DC, federal court. According to the agreement, Ferrier made ricin at her home in Quebec, Canada, and put the poison in letters addressed to Trump and the Texas officials.... ...After sending the letters from Canada, Ferrier was arrested when trying to cross the border into the US...

Chief Justice John Roberts asserted the independence of the federal courts from what he called "inappropriate political influence," in a year-end report released Friday that comes amid widespread political criticism of the Supreme Court, and calls to dramatically reform its structure.

The U.S. government is expected to launch an operation next week to send court documents to 78,000 migrants who were not processed for deportation after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization this year, two people briefed on the plan told CBS News... ...The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plan, dubbed "Operation Horizon," is designed to place tens of thousands of migrants who received ad hoc processing near the southern border into deportation proceedings...

A federal court on Thursday nixed a Trump-era rule that limited state and tribal authority to block projects that could impact their waters, including pipelines. California Federal Judge William Alsup vacated the rule and sent it back to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for further proceedings. The Clinton appointee's move came after the agency asked the court to remand the issue back to the EPA amid litigation filed by states and environmental groups... ...The now-vacated rule had limited states’ authorities to block projects by giving them a strict one-year time limit to do so before the federal government could decide...

A federal appeals court Tuesday unanimously rejected a suit filed by ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to overturn a tax overhaul law approved by former President Donald Trump in 2017 that limited federal deductions on state and local taxes. The $1.5 trillion law imposed a $10,000 cap on itemized SALT deductions that taxpayers could write-off on their federal returns, which provided Trump and the then-Republican-led Congress more revenues to pay for other federal tax cuts. The SALT cap largely affects the wealthiest taxpayers in high tax Democratic states in the Northeast — New York and New Jersey, and Connecticut, as well as...

Federal prosecutors brought forth the first case against a bank whose employees allegedly exploited the multi-billion-dollar benefit programs aimed to support small businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic. The case was brought against the former branch manager of Popular Bank in New York. The manager allegedly conspired with other employees of the bank to fraudulently apply for more than $3 million in small business relief loans, according to Reuters. Over 500 individuals have seen charges pertaining to pandemic-relief falsehoods, sparking "unprecedented levels of fraud," said the U.S. Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery. While cases of fraud by individuals have surged...

A second federal judge in Washington questioned whether the lead felony charge leveled by the government against Capitol riot defendants is unconstitutionally vague, as 18 Oath Keepers accused in a conspiracy case urged the court on Wednesday to toss out a count carrying one of the heaviest penalties against them. U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta asked how federal prosecutors distinguish felony conduct qualifying as “obstructing an official proceeding” of Congress — punishable by up to 20 years in prison — from misdemeanor offenses the government has charged others with, such as shouting to interrupt a congressional hearing. “Essentially, what...

AColorado web designer is appealing a ruling made Monday by the 10th Circuit Court that rejected her challenge of Colorado's anti-discrimination law and requires her to create wedding websites for same-sex couples despite it violating her religious beliefs. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled 2 – 1 the state can force Lorie Smith of studio 303 Creative to design and publish websites promoting messages that go against her personal religious beliefs. The law at issue also prevents Smith from explaining on her company's website what sites she can create that are consistent with her beliefs. By...

SEATTLE (AP) — A federal jury is deciding whether one of the nation's biggest private prison companies must pay minimum wage — instead of $1 a day — to immigration detainees who perform tasks like cooking and cleaning at its jail in Washington state.... ...GEO's response is that the detainees simply aren't employees. Even if they were, the company says, it would be unlawfully discriminatory for Washington to require GEO to pay them minimum wage — now $13.69 an hour — when the state doesn't pay minimum wage to inmates who work at its own prisons or other detention facilities....

The case shows the judiciary is just as fractured as the rest of America, and leftist judges are defiantly ignoring Supreme Court and circuit precedent.On Friday, in a procedural oddity, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals voted to hear the initial appeal in Bristol v. Slatery as a full court, rather than allowing the case to proceed as normal before a three-judge panel. The case involved abortion, and the takeaways are two-fold: The judiciary is just as fractured as the rest of America, and leftist judges are defiantly ignoring Supreme Court and circuit precedent.To understand the significance of the Sixth...

A retired New York police officer who is alleged to have played a tambourine in the halls of the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot has been charged with several misdemeanors, the FBI said... ...Carpenter is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds....

A group of red states will file a lawsuit on Thursday against the Biden administration for revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which the president did via executive order on his first day in office, Fox News has learned. The lawsuit, first obtained by Fox News, is led by Montana and Texas, and backed by 19 other states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. It names President Biden and several of his Cabinet secretaries as defendants. The lawsuit...

(CNN)The Biden administration took steps Friday to reverse one of the most controversial health care moves of President Donald Trump: Allowing states to require Medicaid recipients to work in order to receive coverage... ...The Trump administration contended that requiring people to work will better their health and is therefore in keeping with Medicaid's mission. The approvals were one of its most high-profile efforts to inject conservative ideals into the Medicaid program, which provides coverage to nearly one in five Americans.... ...The Supreme Court agreed to take the Arizona and New Hampshire cases in December, with oral arguments scheduled for March...

But probably not for long. CNN and the Washington Post settled with Nicholas Sandmann over his libel claim rather than attempt to defend their reporting on the March for Life confrontation with activist Nathan Phillips, and especially their subsequent defamatory commentary even after the full context of that confrontation became clear. Other news outlets have played out the string, hoping to find a way to shortcut the need to start writing checks to the teenager and his high-powered attorney, Lin Wood.That strategy looks like it has expired, as Wood announced yesterday afternoon: Motions to Dismiss @N1ckSandmann defamation lawsuits filed...

The next president will likely solidify a lasting majority on the courts of appeals, either cementing President Trump’s judicial legacy or largely undoing it. Our nation’s courts are nearing a tipping point. During President Trump’s first term, he has achieved a slim conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court (5 of 9) and has evened the score in the critically important federal courts of appeals, which are the final stop for more than 99 percent of all federal appeals.Now, data compiled by the Article III Project (A3P) shows that the next president will likely solidify a lasting majority on the...

Senate Democrats released a 50-plus page report Wednesday sounding alarm bells over the rate at which Senate Republicans and President Trump have confirmed federal judges during the president's first term as Republicans are working on shepherding along even more lifetime-appointed federal judges. The account calls GOP-appointed judges "politicians in robes," rails against the Chief Justice John Roberts' Supreme Court, slams the conservative and libertarian lawyers' group the Federalist Society and says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is "betraying the vision of our founders." The report was widely promoted by high-profile Senate Democrats on Wednesday, including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.,...

Conflicted: Because the presidents who nominate them are political, federal judges who are appointed to the bench are political as well, which is why our country gets so many rulings from that conflict — or appear to conflict — with U.S. law. We got another one on Monday: A federal judge in California, appointed to the bench by President Obama, ruled that POTUS Donald Trump has no authority to issue an executive order changing asylum rules that are clearly being abused by hordes of migrants. The Associated Press reported: …U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar agreed with legal groups that immediately...

Do Bing or Google search on “Federal Court Blocks President Trump . . . ,“ and you’ll find one lower federal court after another blocked the Trump administration from rescinding Obama’s illegal DACA, delaying the start of an EPA rule, cracking down on sanctuary cities, banning trannies from our military, and keeping dangerous jihadis out of the US. If America had a congress as institutionally proud as our Framers intended, federal district courts wouldn’t stop President Trump at nearly every turn. Our system wasn’t designed for a complacent and neutered legislature that stands by and watches judicial usurpations and tyranny.1...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Saturday slammed “activist judges,” whom he accused of overreaching and paralyzing the government by shutting down Trump-era policies they object to via nationwide injunctions. At a Federalist Society event at Georgetown University, Sessions blasted judges who have shut down controversial Trump-era policies such as denying funding for so-called “sanctuary cities” and repealing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. “The court is not superior; the court does not get to have the final word in every dispute, give me a break,” he said. He said the vehicle of choice for "activist judges" is nationwide...

By supporting activist judges and the import of terrorists, that is what you are shooting for, right? First, I want the judges to show me where in the U.S. Constitution it states that the federal court system has any authority to overturn or nullify an executive order. Second, I want the judges to show me where in the U.S. Constitution it expressly enumerates the power of the courts to strike down legislation or determine the constitutionality of legislation. Third, I want them to show me in the U.S. Constitution where it shows that they have any enforcement power regarding their...