Free Republic

Editor's Note: This post was authored by Christian Watson.Americans rarely agree on political matters. Polarization has, unfortunately, infected seemingly every facet of American life. But one issue has historically drawn broad consensus across the political spectrum: The need to iron out serious holes in America’s notoriously abused tort system. We don’t know when it’ll be, but once this is all over, there will likely be a deluge of frivolous claims (for instance, if a customer contracts coronavirus and blames the business or restaurant they visited for it), which would strain our already-bloated legal system and leave cash-strapped businesses to the...

The Sixth Amendment states, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed….” Those words stand a clearly as they did when the Bill of Rights was adopted, but these days, Americans who insist on a jury trial may find themselves punished for doing so. Here’s the problem. The American judicial system is so overwhelmed with cases that prosecutors don’t want to bother with trials. They would much rather strong-arm the defendant into a plea bargain, thus...

It is unconstitutional for defendants to be held in jail simply because they can't afford to post bail, the Justice Department asserted this week. This marks the first time that the federal government has sided with this position before an appeals court, according to NBC News. In a friend of the court briefing, the DOJ said: "Bail practices that incarcerate indigent individuals before trial solely because of their inability to pay for their release violate the Fourteenth Amendment." The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that no citizen can be denied "life, liberty or property, without due process of law."

Irving, Texas Mayor Beth Van Duyne has doubled down in the face of criticism and has vowed to fight against Sharia Law “with every fiber” of her being. Van Duyne is facing criticism from both left wing groups and the muslim community after the city council passed HB 562 which forbids the use of foreign law and confirms the supremacy of U.S. laws.In response, CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) now demands an apology from Van Duyne citing that HB 562 is a direct attack on the religion of Islam. Via Conservative Tribune According to WND, Van Duyne has sworn to “fight with...

When a Texas jury rejected an insanity defense and convicted Eddie Ray Routh in the murder of "American Sniper" Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield, it raised a question: If this guy isn't crazy, who is? Routh had a voluminous history of mental illness. After being discharged from the Marines in 2010, doctors hospitalized him because he thought a giant tapeworm was eating him. He had several more stints in psychiatric facilities and regularly took medications for psychosis. A few weeks before the shootings, doctors concluded he was a danger to himself and others. After his final release from a Veterans...

“Blacks are only a small percentage of our community (but) the courthouse is filled with them,” says a long-serving public defender who writes under the pen name of Michael Smith in order to protect himself and his family. “The halls and gallery benches are overflowing with black defendants, families, and crime victims,” says the attorney. (1) “For blacks, the courthouse is like a carnival…they all seem to know each other…hundreds and hundreds each day, gossiping, laughing loudly, waving and crowding the halls.” Public defender Smith is finally opening up after many years of dancing to the tune of flawed media...

In July 2009, Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. Dubois Institute of African-American Research at Harvard University, was mistaken for an intruder and arrested for attempting to enter his own home. The incident made headlines, and clearly demonstrated that people of color receive little consideration or compassion if they are ever unfortunate enough to find themselves on the wrong side of law enforcement or the justice system. Because of this race-based antagonism, and its often deadly consequences, the next hurdle in African-American civil liberties must be the fight for judicial affirmative action. The recent rashes of mysterious murder...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Wednesday that Khalid Al-Jawary, a dangerous Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorist convicted of a 1973 New York City bomb plot and implicated in multiple terrorist attacks spanning two decades, was deported to Sudan. He had served only half of his thirty year sentence. Recently declassified information additionally reveals that Al-Jawary got help from New York's Iraqi diplomatic mission in communicating with his PLO masters. In March of 1973, Al-Jawary and possible accomplices planted three powerful car bombs: two along 5th Avenue near Israeli-owned banks, and one at Kennedy Airport. Timed to explode upon...

NEW YORK, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Cycling back to cases settled in 1928, a New York judge determined a 4-year-old girl accused of running down an older woman while racing a bike can be sued. Justice Paul Wooten's ruling earlier this month did not find that the girl was liable in the incident; it only allowed a lawsuit brought against her, another boy and their parents to proceed, The New York Times reported Friday. The suit claims that, in April 2009, Juliet Breitman and Jacob Kohn, both 4 at the time, were racing their training wheel-equipped bicycles along a sidewalk,...

A Mississippi judge jailed a lawyer for several hours for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, ordering the attorney to "purge himself" of contempt by standing and repeating the oath like the rest of the courtroom.

(CNN) -- A Texas district court judge Friday reversed the conviction of a man who died in prison nearly a decade ago, almost two decades into a prison sentence for a rape he swore he did not commit, CNN affiliate KXAN reported. ">snip<"

Former "blogging pedophile" Jack McClellan has been released from jail, following his arrest last week for violating a restraining order in California. His release follows the prediction of observers in law enforcement, child advocacy, and the judicial system who think it will be difficult to take effective or even constitutional steps against McClellan to protect children. The 45-year-old self-professed pedophile was arrested August 13 for violating a three-year restraining order that required him to stay 30 feet away from all children. He was being held in jail with a $150,000 bail bond. But according to Associated Press, he was released...

Last month, Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled that Washington, D.C. administrative law Judge Roy Pearson would not get $54 million for his allegedly lost pants. The decision surprised no one except maybe Judge Pearson, who is expected to appeal the verdict. But the "victory" for Jin, Soo, and Ki Chung, owners of Custom Cleaners, has cost them at least $83,000 in legal fees and counting. The case has drained their life savings and left them with a large debt. I'm thrilled to say that the Institute for Legal Reform and the American Tort Reform Association co-hosted a fundraiser on their behalf...

The prosecutor demanded that the doored bunk beds be called "cages." Other names used to describe the safey beds (which I personally examined) were "slave cages" and "slave quarters." The foster parent Gravelles were convicted instead of commended for caring for eleven developmentally disabled black children. Even one African American "expert" on the case thought that is was prejudicial for these white Gravelles to have so many black children in their charge. Children that no one else would think about adopting. Editorial Many people are wanting to blame Huron County social services, but for the wrong reasons. To put it...

In my daily perusal of the news, I caught two items that illustrate, quite clearly, how liberals view the role of the judiciary, thus revealing, in stark terms, how critically important is the battle over the judicial filibuster. First, I read about a commencement speech at Brandeis University by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justice who authored the opinion declaring same-sex "marriage" legal in Massachusetts. Newsmax.com reported Justice Margaret Marshall said, "Our courts function as a pressure valve to defuse political and social tension."

With all of the media venues finally calling attention to Terri Schindler Schiavo and her fight to stay alive - I could not help but reflect on all of the articles, affadavits, and medical reports I have read. It is very important to review everything in sequence and cumulatively, so that a proper picture can be painted. Something, by the way, the Honorable Judge Greer has refused to do - you would think after all these years, he would at least need to refresh his memory before condeming a woman to death. But...Nonetheless... My reflections have led me to a...

I can't help but conclude that our system and judges in this Terri Schiavo case are using intellectual legalistic gymnastics to justify the state sanctioned starvation of a woman. On this Easter weekend I would like us all to consider this: In Mark 7:11 A story is told of how Jesus dealings with the Church leaders of the day. At that time church leaders were required by the law to: 1) Support the Church (tithe) 2) Take care of aging parents. Apparently in that time, the leaders devised a way to technically avoid supporting the parents by saying they were...

Thoughtful, intelligent and painfully aware of the gravity of their decision. If, as some have suggested, their guilty verdict restored faith in the legal system, then their action Monday might has restored faith in the jury system. Not because the jurors in the Scott Peterson trial chose death -- the merits of capital punishment in this case can and will continue to be debated -- but because of their comments at the post-verdict news conference and since. Agree or not, the four jurors who have spoken have clearly articulated why they decided Peterson was guilty and why he deserves to...

The American legal landscape is a varied one, and our system of federalism helps to ensure that variety. There are bad federal courts and good state judges, wise federal prosecutors and corrupt state attorneys general. Most tort law is state law, so many blockbuster lawsuits — suits involving liability or personal injury — are handled at the state level. And certain states contain "magic jurisdictions" — counties whose judges are notoriously friendly to plaintiffs and notoriously hostile to big corporations. Perhaps the most magic of the magic is Illinois' Madison County.

<p>A federal judge Monday ruled that Iowa's law prohibiting sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or child-care center is unconstitutional.</p> <p>The Iowa Legislature enacted the law in 2002 in an effort to keep sexual predators away from children.</p>