Free Republic

Egypt’s Islamist-led parliament on Wednesday pushed ahead with a law that could force into retirement many of the nation’s most senior judges, despite an uproar by the judiciary over fears the president’s allies want to control the courts. … The judiciary, with mostly secular-minded professional judges, is seen by many Egyptians as the one of the only remaining buffers against Islamists’ monopoly on power following the ouster of authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Since then, Islamist parties have swept elections and dominated legislative councils and the presidency. President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood party counters that many judges are holdovers...

State bill would allow non-citizens to serve as jurors By JUDY LIN ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 12:24 p.m. Last Modified: Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 12:24 p.m. SACRAMENTO — The state Assembly on Thursday passed a bill that would make California the first state in the nation to allow non-citizens who are in the country legally to serve on jury duty.

A federal judge has struck down a Missouri law exempting moral objectors from mandatory birth control coverage because it conflicts with an insurance requirement under [Obamacare].

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a ban on the sale and manufacture of more than 150 types of semi-automatic weapons with military-style features Thursday in a party-line vote. The 10-8 vote came after a heated exchange between Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who Feinstein scolded for giving her a "lecture" on the Constitution. It’s the fourth piece of gun control legislation to make it out of committee, and perhaps the one with the longest odds of becoming law given opposition from Republicans to a new ban on so-called assault weapons. Committee Democrats first beat back four...

A New York attorney is taking the complicated process of picking a jury to a new extreme. He represents a suspected terrorist and asked a judge to keep Jews off the panel. Inside Brooklyn Federal Court, attorney Frederick Cohn told Judge Eric Vitaliano, “I’m not wild about having Jews on the jury in this case,” CBS 2’s Steve Langford reported. Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, a Muslim, is charged with making false statements in connection with a terrorism offense. His attorney told the court he didn’t believe his client could get a fair trial if Jews are on the jury. … For...

There is both good news and bad news from today's Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting. The meeting agenda had votes on six nominees for US District Court judgeships and four gun control bills. First, five out of the six the judicial nominees were passed out of committee on voice votes. However, Kenneth John Gonzales, the US Attorney for New Mexico and a nominee for a District Court judgeship, was held over. This would appear to mean that according to Committee Rules at least one member of the Judiciary Committee requested that the vote on Gonzales be held over until the...

Published on Mar 6, 2013 - Comments on continuing efforts to restrict the 2nd Amendment, focusing on the Senate Judiciary Hearing, SH-216, February 27, 2013. During that hearing, chaired by anti-gun proponent Diane Feinstein, some of my ballistic test footage was shown by Dr. William Begg. I needed to post a response to his testimony, and highlight that the true roots of gun violence are being ignored. Dr. Begg called for "real gun research". My point is that the research is already there, just disregarded by those with the authority to develop a relevant plan that creates objective solutions to...

The Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee did not endorse colleague Dianne Feinstein’s assault weapons ban at a packed Capitol Hill hearing on guns Wednesday in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shooting. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., called for “common sense reform,” that closes loopholes in current gun laws and enforces background checks. Buthe did not endorse Feinstein’s tougher ban. “I know gun store owners in Vermont,” Leahy said. “They follow the law and conduct background checks…why should we not try to plug the loopholes in the law that allow (criminals and the mentally ill)

In a segment this morning discussing the breaking news that a panel of judges on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously ruled that some of President Obama's recess appointments had been made in an unconstitutional manner, MSNBC's Thomas Roberts turned to network contributor and former Democratic Senate staffer Jimmy Williams for his reaction. Williams conceded the the court had ruled correctly, but rather than chiding the president for violating his oath of office with unconstitutional appointments, he blamed Senate Republicans for driving Mr. Obama to do so. For his part, Roberts agreed, mumbling "mm hmm" in...

[A] Cook County judge deemed “legally insane” will likely be re-elected. Judge Cynthia Brim still collects her regular paycheck — seven months after her suspension from the bench for erratic behavior. Despite the bad publicity, voters will likely give her another six years on the bench. Brim was admitted to practice in 1983. From 1984 to 1991, she worked for Mayor Harold Washington and later under Mayor Richard M. Daley and Roland Burris. “Most [lawyers] indicated a lack of confidence in her legal abilities,” even though her cases are “generally non-complex . . . her rulings are unpredictable and delayed....

...We should not be tempted to politicize our courts. Of course, there is nothing wrong about debating the pros and cons of court rulings, but our judges should not be tempted to decide cases based on politics rather than merits. Decisions must be based on honest interpretation of the law. We should demand impartial judges. We do not want them out raising money for campaigns.

Here is an unofficial list of potential nominees for the Supreme Court if Mitt Romney is elected president in November. This list was compiled from a number of sources, including those serving as informal advisers to the Romney campaign. The Republican nominee has not specified publicly on favorites for the court. Many names mentioned are relatively young judges named to the federal bench by President George W. Bush. Paul Clement, former U.S. Solicitor General Born 1966. Considered by many as one of the best lawyers of his generation. The Wisconsin native went to Harvard Law School where he was a...

Chairman Smith: This Committee has held hearings on many of the ways in which the Obama Administration has abused its power, ignored its duties, evaded responsibility and overstepped the Constitution’s limits on the President. Today's hearing will look at the pattern of ignoring constitutional limits created by all of these abuses.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee today asked President Obama to make seven senior, high-profile administration officials available to be interviewed regarding national security leaks. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) wants his committee to be able to interview National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, Vice Presidential National Security Adviser Tony Blinken, Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough, Director for Counterterrorism Audrey Tomason, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan, and Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism James Clapper

Simple enough question. We need to start using this option. He clearly brought the country closer to tyranny, and that in my view is an impeachable offense. Outside of "my view", his job is to uphold the constitution. He failed to do his job. He failed to protect the people. He failed to protect COTUS. He should be fired.

  It is one thing to overturn ObamaCare should we be fortunate enough to A) Have an election (yeah, you heard me), B) Get a GOP President, C) Get a CONSERVATIVE House that will hold Boehner accountable as Speaker to not cave as he did on the budget ceiling debate, and D) get at least 51 votes in the Senate.But how do we rectify the insane “precedent� set out by Roberts that the judiciary has the right to reclassify – even create – a “tax� that was never written in the original law?   Or that you can now be “taxed�...

"One of the forces behind the Roe v. Wade opinion could be confirmed as a federal judge as early as tomorrow, after the U.S. Senate voted to advance his nomination for a vote Monday evening. The Senate adjourned just past seven o’clock Monday evening, shortly after Hurwitz cleared a cloture vote, which ended debate on his nomination. That vote means the Senate will take up a vote to name him to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday morning. He is strongly favored to win confirmation from the Democrat-controlled Senate sometime this week. Eight Republicans voted with the Democrats...

The Trayvon Martin case's Judge Lester has made a judicial misstep about the George Zimmerman bond revocation. And it's a misstep which only serves to increase the racial tensions in the country, unnecessarily. Judge Lester contends that the Trayvon Martin shooter’s bond had to be revoked because the suspect lied during his first bond hearing about the state of his finances, and that his wife, Shellie, did too, telling the court that the two were practically broke, which led to a $150,000 bail instead of the $1 million sought by the prosecution. But the judge isn’t giving the public all...

The federal appeals court in Boston struck down the Defense of Marriage Act on Thursday, ruling that the federal statute violates the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian married couples to equal treatment under the law. The action by a unanimous three-judge panel of the First US Circuit Court of Appeals sets the stage for a much-anticipated showdown at the US Supreme Court over same-sex marriage. Declaring that tradition alone was not enough to justify disparate treatment of same-sex couples, the appeals court said DOMA failed to pass constitutional muster. “Under current Supreme Court authority, Congress’ denial of federal benefits...

Paul Clement, who served as U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush and is now a lawyer in private practice, is the favorite of many conservatives. Clement argued last month for the Supreme Court to strike down Obama's 2010 healthcare law, and he is defending laws that ban same-sex marriage and that target illegal immigrants. Clement, 45, would be "at the top of any short list right now," said Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group that advocates for conservative nominees. Asked about Clement, Mary Ann Glendon, a co-chairwoman of Romney's Justice Advisory Committee, voiced...

A majority of the state Supreme Court boycotted part of an administrative meeting Wednesday, believing Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson was improperly trying to take up an issue. The development was the latest sign that the deeply fractured court will be discussing considerably less routine business in public. In 1999, the court became one of the first - if not the first - high courts in the country to take up the bulk of its administrative matters in public. But in January, four of the seven members of the court voted to discuss much of its work behind closed doors. Abrahamson...

Madison - The state Supreme Court refused Monday to immediately take up a pair of cases that struck down the state's new voter ID law, a decision that will likely mean citizens won't have to show ID when they cast ballots in recall elections this spring. The court's terse orders send the cases back to two different courts of appeals. The appeals courts had said the Supreme Court should take the cases right away because of their significance. Now, the appeals courts will have to render their own decisions on the cases. The cases could then go to the Supreme...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is laying groundwork to make the majority-conservative Supreme Court a campaign issue this fall, taking a political page from Republicans who have long railed against liberal judges who don't vote their way. The emerging Democratic strategy to paint the court as extreme was little noted in this week's hubbub over Obama's assertion that overturning his health care law would be "unprecedented." His statement Monday wasn't completely accurate, and the White House backtracked. But Obama was making a political case, not a legal one, and he appears ready to keep making it if the high...

KNOXVILLE — A Tennessee judge was so addicted to prescription drugs during his final two years on the bench, he was having sex and buying pills during courtroom breaks, at times purchasing from convicts he had previously sentenced, an investigation found. His behavior has called into question many of the cases he presided over, including one of Knoxville's most notorious murders. Many people didn't realize Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner had a problem until he stepped down from the bench and pleaded guilty in March 2011 to a single count of official misconduct. It would be another eight months before...

A Texas judge has ruled to strip a Tea Party-aligned group of its non-profit status. The judge ruled that the group, King Street Patriots (KSP), was actually a political action committee (PAC) for engaging in anti-voter fraud efforts.

Yesterday the left descended into madness. The madness came early in the day. It happened shortly after 10 o’clock in the morning. Justice Anthony Kennedy opened his mouth and uttered his first question on the issue of the individual mandate. He asked, “Can you create commerce in order to regulate it?” The question, the second asked yesterday morning, bothered the left. As the clock approached 11, Kennedy spoke again, sending shockwaves through the legal community. He stated matter of factly, _____________________________________________________ the reason this is concerning, is because it requires the individual to do an affirmative act. In the law...

A Dane County judge who issued a temporary injunction against Wisconsin's photo ID voting law last week, David Flanagan, drew a barrage of criticism for not disclosing he had signed a petition for a recall election of Gov. Scott Walker. The state Republican party filed a judicial ethics complaint against him over the controversy. One other Dane County judge had signed a recall petition. In Milwaukee County, it appears at least nine of 47 circuit judges signed: Bonnie Gordon, Charles Kahn, Mary Kuhnmuench, Dennis Cimpl, Jane Carroll, Jean DiMotto, Karen Christenson, Marshall Murray, and Michael Dwyer. The names came back...

“The courts could lose more than one-fourth of their workforce, civil trials could be suspended for months, funds to pay panel attorneys who represent indigent defendants would expire well before the end of the fiscal year, and court security could be severely compromised,” said Judge Julia Gibbons, in remarks to the federal judiciary’s policy-making body.

Today marked the first day of a major standoff in the judicial nomination war, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) tried to break loose 17 judicial nominees tied up by Republicans. On the floor of the Senate, he offered to bring a quick vote on the JOBS Act, a Republican-led jobs bill that passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support, in return for Republicans dropping their opposition to the nominees.

Harry Reid moves to stack the judiciarySenate Majority Leader Harry Reid is up to his dirty political tricks. He’s sitting on the jobs bill that passed the House last week with 390 votes and has the president’s endorsement. Instead of taking it up, the Nevada Democrat announced on Monday he will force votes this week on 17 of President Obama’s lifetime judicial nominees. Mr. Reid is manufacturing this fight to paint Republicans as obstructionists in a tight election year. There’s no backlog of nominations to complain about, as the Senate has approved seven judges so far this year. The president...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2 to 1 decision written by the liberal Judge Stephen Reinhardt overturned the votes of seven million Californians. They ruled that California's Proposition 8 defining marriage as between a man and a woman was unconstitutional. The entire ruling rests on the most feeble of cowardly Constitutional arguments in upholding the baseless lower district court opinion. It misconstrues precedent and has the strongest of logical weaknesses. Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum in response on February 12, 2012 rightly said that "I think judicial tyranny is a serious issue in this — in this...

Madison - A three-judge panel on Thursday told Republican lawmakers to turn over 84 documents to a group of Democrats in a blistering order that said Republicans had engaged in an "all but shameful" effort to keep its efforts hidden from the public. The court promptly released the documents that showed, among other things, that Republicans who drew new election maps last year largely orchestrated the public testimony given in support of them. The three federal judges - two of them appointed by Republicans - were unanimous in their decision. It came after a string of orders against the Republicans...

It is certainly no surprise for gun owners to see the New York Times run a story belittling the United States Constitution. After all, the Times has worked for decades to devalue our founding document. "[I]ts influence is waning," opines the Times. It is "terse and old, and it guarantees relatively few rights." The paper faults the Constitution for being difficult to amend and reflective of the times in which it was written. While the Times does not go so far as to claim the U.S. Constitution has been bad for America, it does lament that it is of "little...

US Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg tells Egyptians: Don’t look to the “OLD US Constitution” for guidance in drafting a new constitution. Justice Ginsburg holds in high esteem the constitution of South Africa and Canada.

Folks, we're not even being contrary when we point this out. For the 9th Circuit to rule Prop 8 unconstitutional, just as Gingrich is looking again for his footing -- just as Rick Santorum is about to steal his headlines -- is a Gingrichian dream. Look! He agrees: (TWEET FROM NEWT AT LINK) The link goes to the 9th (coincidentally) of Gingrich's solutions for fixing the judiciary, to prevent it from doing things that conservatives don't like -- abolishing courts that make "un-American decisions." He's been on the record wanting this treatment for the 9th circuit for a long, long...

Much has been reported in recent days regarding the Obamacare mandate that would require religious institutions to provide health insurance whose services include contraception. But few realize that a case with essentially the same underlying principle has been working its way through the federal court system for a couple years already. The L.A. Times reported in 2009 that "pharmacists are obliged to dispense the Plan B pill, even if they are personally opposed to the 'morning after' contraceptive on religious grounds, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. In a case that could affect policy across the western U.S., a supermarket...

PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - Pennsylvania is known as the Quaker State and Philadelphia as the Quaker City because both were founded by William Penn, who was a member of the Society of Friends - also called Quakers. Quakers hold to "a belief in the possibility of direct, unmediated communion with the Divine." Some would suggest, however, that Philadelphia's courts are anything but divinely inspired. The January edition ...

In a letter obtained by The Daily Caller, House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith warned Attorney General Eric Holder not to permit the transfer of funds from a recent $335 million Department of Justice settlement to organizations associated with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, more commonly known as ACORN, or other advocacy groups allied with President Obama. Smith is concerned that flimsy language in the settlement agreement with Countrywide Financial — the mortgage arm of Bank of America — could be politically motivated. “I am concerned that the terms of the Justice Department’s recent settlement with...

Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) brother-in-law was quietly nominated by President Barack Obama to a federal judgeship in New Jersey, even though the state’s senior senator, Frank Lautenberg, was leaning toward other candidates, according to a report Monday. Kevin McNulty, who is married to Schumer’s sister, was nominated for the $174,000-a-year lifetime post in the U.S. District Court on Dec. 16, according to the New York Post.

When discussing his amazingness, Newt Gingrich sometimes exaggerates somewhat, as when, discussing Bosnia and Washington, D.C., street violence, he said, “People like me are what stand between us and Auschwitz” [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jan. 16, 1994]. What primarily stands between us and misrule, however, is the Constitution, buttressed by an independent judiciary. But Gingrich’s hunger for distinction has surely been slaked by his full-throated attack on such a judiciary. He is the first presidential candidate to propose a thorough assault on the rule of law. That is the meaning of his vow to break courts to the saddle of politicians, particularly...

In Partial Defense of Newt Gingrich December 21, 2011 11:15 A.M. By Ed Whelan I’ve vigorously criticized Newt Gingrich’s proposal to abolish judgeships, and I also agree with Andy McCarthy’s critique of Gingrich’s idea that Congress should subpoena federal judges (and arrest them, if necessary) to explain their rulings to members of Congress. That said, I think that some of Gingrich’s other ideas have been subjected to unfair attack, and I’d like to sketch a brief defense of them here: 1. Gingrich is correct to contest the myth of “judicial supremacy.” As his “white paper” explains, he is not challenging...

For nearly a decade, 2012 contender Newt Gingrich has been floating some controversial ideas aimed at reining in the federal judiciary. He's called that branch of government "grotesquely dictatorial" and elitist. Should he become president, Gingrich says he'll ignore Supreme Court decisions if they don't square with his interpretation of the Constitution or what he believes the country's founders intended. Gingrich says federal judges should be called before Congress to explain their decisions, suggesting Sunday that he'd even approve of arresting them if they refused to show up. It's an issue raised Thursday in Fox News' GOP debate in Iowa,...

No ‘Newt-’ New Year Dragon of 2012- Gingrich, or ‘Axed Judiciary’ as Aquino’s Philippines by John P. Roco Sunday, 18 December 2011 19:51 Hawaii Standard Time What timing: December 12, 2012- Supreme Court Chief justice of the Philippines Renato Corona impeached at the bequest of President Aquino backers of the House of Representatives for eight Articles, the first saying: “he has consistently sided with the (arroyo) administration in politically-significant cases” (Article I also contests- as Aquino does- the constitutionality of the ‘midnight appointment’ of Corona by then President Arroyo on May 12, 2010). Three days later: December 15, 2012- Newt...

At his 2005 Senate confirmation hearing, John Roberts, the nominee of President George W. Bush to become the 17th chief justice of the United States, promised to serve in the neutral fashion of a baseball umpire and lead the Supreme Court away from all manner of judicial activism. “[I]t’s my job to call balls and strikes,” he testified, “and not to pitch or bat.” Few, if any, observers took Roberts at his word, given his track record as a Republican warhorse, including stints as a clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist and as deputy solicitor general under the first President...

Evangelicals play a significant role in the Iowa electorate. In 2008 they overwhelmingly voted for Mike Huckabee. Huckabee is perceived by many as having won the vote by living and campaigning in Iowa exclusively and speaking to many churches and church groups prior to the caucuses. Many Iowans may also have voted for him because he was a Baptist minister. Iowans were impressed for sure. But it was not enough to propel him to the nomination. In fact by the time the process rolled around to Florida, the Huckabee share of voters was only 13%. For this election cycle, evangelicals...

Republican president hopeful Newt Gingrich doubled down on his criticism of federal judges and the Supreme Court on Sunday as chief rival Mitt Romney defended his record against likely Democratic attacks. With close to two weeks before GOP voters start choosing their nominee, Gingrich is courting the conservative primary voters he will need to win in Iowa and sustain his campaign against Romney, whose superior organization and pile of cash has him seeming ever more confident as he looks ahead to the general election. "There is steady encroachment of secularism through the courts to redefine America as a nonreligious country...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKX2zQbtEQcHere it for those who missed it last night. Newt gave the best possible answer. Obama knows zero American history except what he got off his favorite leftist professors at Harvard and Columbia. While Newt has taught American history and loves the American history of an exceptional nation

Elena Kagan Mania Elena Kagan: The Justice Who Knows Too Much (audio)Senate GOP Leaders To Holder: Your Kagan Testimony 'Belied By The Facts'Sessions Demands Written Testimony from Holder on Kagan and ObamacareSessions presses Holder on Justice Kagan's involvement with health law“A Pattern of Socialist Associations” – Obama’s Supreme Court Nominee, Elena Kagan (the Early Years)Kagan emails lead to calls for inquiry over her involvement in ObamacareFlashback: Elena Kagan's brother was a radical socialist (communist?)- and she thanks him Kagan to Tribe on Day Obamacare Passed: ‘I Hear They Have the Votes, Larry!! Simply Amazing.’Judge Blocks Release of Recusal-Related Emails Kagan...

So, Governor Rick Perry made a speech today where he proposed the following: * Ending the practice of giving lifetime appointments to federal judges (current judges would not be affected); * Cutting Congressional pay in half; * Cutting Congressional pay in half again if they don’t balance the budget by 2020; * Cutting Congressional office budgets in half; * Cutting the Congressional calendar by half; * Criminalizing insider trading by Congressmen (no, actually, it’s not currently illegal for them to do that); * Reducing spending to 18% of GDP; * Privatizing Fannie & Freddie; * Ending the funding of Planned...

div class="article_body"> The case for Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan recusing herself from voting on the upcoming decision regarding Obamacare would seem to be an open and shut one. Emails show that she harbored definite opinions about the law while serving as Obama's solicitor general.The Examiner: At her confirmation hearing in 2010, now-Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan that she "was not" asked at any time to give her opinion on the merits of the Obamacare legislaton. Newly released emails suggest that whether or not she was asked, Kagan was not shy about her enthusiasm for the bill that eventually...