Free Republic

The right-to-work law promoted by Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was struck down Friday by a judge in Dane County. ABC affiliate WBAY reports: The unions, including the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers and International Association of Machinists, argued the law amounts to an unconstitutional seizure of their property because it allows workers who donÂ’t pay union dues to still receive union benefits.State attorneys argued the law is constitutional since it technically doesnÂ’t take any money out of union coffers.Judge William Foust agreed the law amounts to taking the unionsÂ’ property without just compensation, and that it violates the state...

A second federal judge has granted discovery to a watchdog group seeking records from Hillary Clinton’s State Department, an unusual move that gives new credibility to claims that State officials intentionally evaded public records laws. U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth issued the ruling on Tuesday in response to a 2014 lawsuit by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, which has been suing the State Department for documents related to the Benghazi attack. Judge Lamberth cited “evidence of government wrong-doing” while issuing the decision. “[W]here there is evidence of government wrong-doing and bad faith, as here, limited discovery is appropriate,...

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- A threatening letter was sent to the sister of presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday. Judge Maryanne Trump Barry sits on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, which is based in Center City. The FBI Philadelphia branch issued the following statement: "The FBI is aware of the incident and is working closely with the United States Secret Service and U.S. Marshals Service. As it is an ongoing matter, no further details are available at this time."

Obama on Wednesday nominated Merrick Garland to serve on the Supreme Court, setting up a protracted political fight with Republicans who have vowed to block any candidate picked by Obama in his final year in office. Garland, 63, is a longtime Washington lawyer and jurist who is chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Considered a moderate, Garland is widely respected in the D.C. legal community and was also a finalist for the first two Supreme Court vacancies Obama filled.

Do not judge, in order that you are not judged (Matt 7:1) If there is any verse in Scripture that virtually everyone knows, even those who have never read the Bible, who have never been to Sunday School, it is Matthew 7:1. I suppose that most who quote this verse could not tell you where it found. It is very popularly held that by these words Jesus intended to say, “No one is qualified to make moral judgments.” A closer reading of the verse, in its context, shows us that such an interpretation of Jesus’ words is highly unlikely. We...

Feb 23 (Reuters) - A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that U.S. State Department officials and aides to Hillary Clinton should be questioned under oath about whether the former secretary of state's use of a private email system was an effort to skirt open records laws. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan is likely to add to the uncertainty hovering over Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for the November U.S. presidential election, about the legal consequences of her decision to exclusively use a private email server in her New York home for her government work. **SNIP**...

(CNN) -- To hear Jackie Barden and David Wheeler describe their lives today is a master class in hope. On December 14, 2012, Barden's youngest son, 7-year-old Daniel, and Wheeler's son, 6-year-old Ben, were among those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. "(My husband) Mark and I still have a great life, and we really have to remember that," Barden said, adding that their two children bring the family an enormous amount of love and strength. "We are fortunate with what we have with the two of them." .... "Our families deserve that day in court," said...

On a hot day in June, the grandson of a bank president took to the floor of the Senate to denounce the daughter of sharecroppers. "I feel compelled to rise on this issue to express, in the strongest terms, my opposition to the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown to the DC Circuit," Senator Obama said. Born in segregated Alabama, Janice Rogers Brown had been a leftist like Obama before becoming conservative. When Obama rose to denounce the respected African-American jurist for her political views it had been almost a full two years since President Bush had nominated her in the...

MADISON, Wis. - Iowa County District Attorney Larry Nelson is proud of his role in the unconstitutional John Doe investigation of conservatives. The Democrat used a gushy editorial from Madison's liberal Capital Times praising his involvement in the probe as a centerpiece ad in his campaign for Iowa County Circuit Court judge. So did Nelson's John Doe boasting backfire and cost him the election? The Iowa County conservative that the illegal investigation targeted, among dozens of others, believes it did. "Iowa County voters decided that the Larry Nelson who was involved in a John Doe investigation found to be 'without...

Among the names cited by candidates was Bill Pryor, Alabama's former Attorney General, who was mentioned by GOP front runner Donald Trump. While AG, Pryor drew the ire of many conservatives when he backed the decision by the Alabama Court of Judiciary to oust Chief Justice Roy Moore from his position for Moore's refusal to follow a federal court order for the removal of a monument of the 10 Commandments from the front of the state's judicial building. Pryor, who is Catholic, argued the Moore had "flagrantly disobeyed the law, incited the public to support his misconduct and undermined the...

Washington, February 14, 2016 India-born judge Srikanth Srinivasan favourite for elevation In this September 27, 2013 photo, Sri Srinivasan takes oath as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Srinivasan is among President Barack Obama's likely options as he looks for a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Saturday. He was Mr. Obama's principal deputy solicitor general, most notably working on the successful fight against the Defence of Marriage Act. Death of a serving judge of the U.S. Supreme Court has set off acrimonious...

Last summer, we noted a crazy case in which the famous Hollywood actor James Woods sued a random Twitter troll who had been making fun of Woods. The anonymous troll.., mocked some of Woods' own nonsensical tweets about Caitlyn Jenner and Planned Parenthood by saying: "@RealJamesWoods @benshapiro cocaine addict James Woods still sniffing and spouting." -- Abe List (@abelist) July 15, 2015 Then, earlier this month, there was a hearing, and LA Superior Court judge Mel Recana, appeared to side with Abe List, issuing a 10-page tentative ruling dismissing the case. In that tentative ruling, Judge Recana noted: The court...

SAN FRANCISCO - A U.S. judge on Friday granted a preliminary injunction stopping the distribution of surreptitious videos taken by anti-abortion activists who alleged Planned Parenthood staff discussed the illegal sale of aborted fetal tissue. The National Abortion Federation (NAF), a nonprofit representing abortion providers, accused the Center for Medical Progress and its founder, David Daleiden, in a lawsuit last year of illegally infiltrating and recording its private meetings. San Francisco federal judge William Orrick last year issued a temporary order prohibiting the distribution of the videos, which he extended on Friday until the litigation is over. Orrick said he

The federal judge overseeing the main Hillary Clinton e-mail lawsuit has scheduled a status conference for next week to see where the headline-generating case goes from here. Judge Rudolph Contreras will ask the lawyers at the hearing on February 9 where the lawsuit stands, now that the State Department has said it will finish disclosing the relevant documents by the end of the month. February 9 also happens to be the day of the New Hampshire primary. A year ago, Jason Leopold, an investigative reporter for VICE News, filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the State Department, seeking...

A state commission recommended Monday that Marion County Circuit Judge Vance Day be ousted from his job for his refusal to marry same-sex couples and other ethical violations. The Oregon Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability made its rare recommendation to the Oregon Supreme Court in a 48-page report. The high court ultimately will decide whether to remove Day from the bench.

Federal Judge Susan Dlott wrote the book on racial profiling in 2002. Last week, she ripped it into one million tiny pieces when three black people broke into her $8 million Cincinnati home and started beating her and her 79-year old husband. "There's three black men with guns at our house," Dlott told a 911 operator after she escaped the home invasion and ran to her neighbor's house one mile away. And just in case the operator did not hear her the first time, Dlott said it again: "My husband and the dogs are still there. There are three black...

New York--New York Judge Carolyn Walker-Diallo, a Black Muslim woman took oath as a civil court judge in New York on Thursday, while swearing to abide by the U.S. Constitution placing her hand on the Holy Quran. In the United States and the majority of Western countries, politicians and members of the courts are sworn in to their positions while placing their hand on the Holy Bible when they take their oath. However, Judge Walker took her oath respecting the sacred book of her Islamic faith, the Holy Quran, while also wearing a hijab. A video posted on Facebook...

INDIAN HILL, Ohio -- You can hear a federal judge make a distressful and chilling call for help after three gunmen attacked her husband and her in the bedroom of their $8 million Indian Hill mansion last Friday.

A federal judge has banished the Baby Jesus and the Three Wise Men from an Indiana high school's Christmas musical. U.S. District Court Judge Jon DeGuilio, appointed to the bench by President Obama, issued an injunction against Concord Community Schools on Dec. 2. The court order forbids students from presenting a live Nativity scene during the Concord High School's Christmas Spectacular. The judge said that portion of the show is overtly religious in nature. "The living nativity scene impermissibly conveys an endorsement of religion and thus runs afoul of the Establishment Clause," the judge wrote in his ruling.

A court handed Judicial Watch a small setback, but didn’t do any favors for Hillary Clinton, either. Earlier, Judicial Watch sued the State Department to force them to prioritize the review and release of Benghazi-related e-mails. Ruling on behalf of the State Department, Judge Amit Mehta ordered the release to stick to the current schedule: Judge Amit Mehta said that it would be “unwise and potentially risky” to order the government to quickly release some of the 329 emails specifically related to the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, Libya, which it had recently discovered.Those emails — along with tens...