Free Republic

PHOENIX - Self-professed "toughest sheriff in America" Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office were guilty of racial profiling, a federal judge found Friday, before ordering a permanent halt to the practice. In a 140-page ruling, Judge Murray Snow said Arpaio's department, under his direction, was detaining individuals believed to be in this country illegally without some other reason to arrest them for violating any state laws. Snow said that continued to occur even after the Department of Homeland Security revoked the department's authority to identify and detain those not in the country legally. The judge also said department...

PHOENIX (AP) - Key figures in a lawsuit that alleges that an Arizona sheriff's office has racially profiled Latinos in its immigration patrols. A judge ruled Friday that Arpaio's office systematically racially profiles Latinos:

Under the direction of Lois Lerner, the Federal Election Commission sued the Christian Coalition in the 1990s. She harassed the Christian Coalition for three election cycles. She lost her case. Lerner even asked one conservative during the case if Pat Robertson prayed over him. (Sound familiar?) These actions landed her at the IRS where she used the same tactics against conservatives and Christians – only on a much larger scale. 500 conservative and Christian groups were illegally targeted by the Obama IRS during her tenure. For twenty-seven months the Obama IRS refused to approve any Tea Party applications for tax-exempt...

BREAKING: KMOV FIRES LARRY CONNORS In April 2012 St. Louis News 4’s Larry Conners grilled President Barack Obama on his extravagant vacation schedule and on bullying the Supreme Court. “The economy is a big concern for folks, I mean the unemployment, trying to make ends meet, gas prices, food prices going up. Some of our viewers are complaining that they get frustrated and angered when they see the first family jetting around different vacations and so forth…” It was one of the few hard-hitting interviews the president sat through last year. Last week Larry Connors revealed that after his interview...

True the Vote, a Houston-based nonprofit dedicated to fighting voter fraud, has filed suit in federal court against the IRS, asking the court to grant its tax-exempt status (three years after applying) and seeking damages for unlawful actions taken by the IRS against the organization. Catherine Engelbrecht, a member of the Harris County, Texas, tea-party organization King Street Patriots, founded True the Vote after serving as a poll worker during the 2008 elections. Observing how understaffed polling places seemed to encourage voter fraud, she established True the Vote to train poll workers to “true” the vote: “to research the voter...

The U.S. Supreme Court just announced it will hear in October 2013 the case Galloway v. Greece, concerning freedom of speech and legislative prayer. In 2008 two Greece residents, Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens, filed suit against the town alleging that the town’s habit of having explicitly Christian prayers delivered prior to board meetings flouted the First Amendment. In August 2012, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Siragusa disagreed, ruling that prayers in Jesus’ name were not a violation of the U.S. Constitution. But a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in May 2012 overturned Siragusa’s decision...

As gratifying as it was to see the “news” media actually do its job last week when the IRS scandal broke, it was also odd that the coverage focused exclusively on abuses of power relating to various Tea Party and anti-abortion groups. A much scarier IRS story has been virtually ignored by the establishment press. On Wednesday, it was reported that a class-action lawsuit had been filed against a group of IRS agents who, according to the complaint filed by “John Doe Company” in the Southern District of California, “stole more than 60,000,000 medical records of more than 10,000,000 Americans,...

A Mass. prisoner has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Correction and a prison superintendent claiming he has been denied access to items, including but not limited to ritual oils, herbs, teas, robes, medallions, colored pens, and cakes, which are necessary to properly exercise his Wiccan faith. Daniel LaPlante, who is currently serving a life sentence at MCI-Norfolk for the murder of a Townsend woman and her two children, claims both the DOC and MCI-Norfolk Superintendent Gary Roden have refused to allow him the ability, time, place, and manner to work his magic, perform his rituals, and cast the...

RICHLAND, Wash. (BP) -- A florist who was told by the state of Washington she must provide her services for a gay wedding is countersuing the state, saying she has served gay customers her entire career and is concerned the state's position on gay weddings will harm religious freedom. The countersuit by Arlene's Flowers came weeks after Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued the florist when its owner, Barronelle Stutzman, declined to design a wedding floral arrangement for a longtime customer who is gay. Washington legalized gay marriage last year. The countersuit, filed by the group Alliance Defending Freedom, says...

In the Texas lawsuit where a football star is out to get an engagement ring returned, the ex-fiance is now telling her story and has returned fire with a counter-suit. With the help of a powerful Houston attorney, Erin Marzouki is seeking to correct what she calls her ex-fiance Mario Williams' 'silly' accusations and doesn't intend to give back the ring because it was given to her as an unconditional gift. Former Houston Texans star Williams, who now plays for the Buffalo Bills, is worth over $30M with a $100M contract, but that isn't stopping him from suing Marzouki to...

<p>"So what would possess the BSA to risk embarrassing themselves on a national stage by opening back up such a controversial and divisive issue when months earlier they proclaimed they had the "absolute best policy?"</p> <p>For me, the answer to that question was found in a little chicken wing and pizza restaurant right across from my office in Orlando, Florida last year in the summer of 2012. I was at this dive of a restaurant I frequent and happened to see Tico Perez..."</p>

The family of the late Derek Boogaard has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the NHL. The former enforcer for the Minnesota Wild and New York Rangers died in May 2011 from a lethal mix of alcohol and oxycodone. He had become addicted to painkillers while dealing with concussions and other injury issues during his six-year NHL career. From the New York Times: "To distill this to one sentence," said William Gibbs, a lawyer for the Boogaards, "you take a young man, you subject him to trauma, you give him pills for that trauma, he becomes addicted to those pills,...

ICE Agent Crane to Obama: "Mr. President, you've overstepped your boundaries. It's your job to enforce the law, it's Congress' job to enact the law."- Last week, ICE union chief Chris Crane won a stunning initial court victory in his lawsuit against the Obama Administration. As we reported, Federal Judge Federal Judge Reed O’Connor told the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that they had no power to refuse to deport illegal aliens, and that he was likely to strike down Obama’s virtual “DACA” amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. The ruling stunned Washington, and Crane’s lawsuit could derail Obama’s four-year...

Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird, has sued her literary agent for allegedly duping her into assigning him the copyright on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, Lee says Samuel Pinkus, the son-in-law of Lee's long-time agent, Eugene Winick, took advantage of her failing hearing and eyesight to transfer the rights on the book, which has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and became an Oscar-winning film. The 87-year-old says she has no memory of agreeing to relinquish her rights or signing the agreement that cements the purported transfer.

In the lore of the ancient Romans, Horatius was a soldier who single-handedly fought off an invading army. The Etruscans had attacked in order to impose a despot on Rome and, by holding them back while his comrades destroyed the bridge that was the only practical route to the city, this single warrior saved the free republic. Obamacare is certainly the bridge via which the forces of despotism plan to “fundamentally transform” the United States, and a decorated Iraq veteran named Matt Sissel may be the Horatius who prevents them from crossing. This 32-year-old artist, businessman, and holder of the...

LOS ANGELES | Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:38pm EDT (Reuters) - The city of Los Angeles will pay $4.2 million to a mother and daughter who were caught in a hail of bullets in February when police mistook their truck for one driven by renegade ex-policeman Christopher Dorner and opened fire, officials said on Tuesday. The settlement, which allows both sides to avoid a trial, brings the Los Angeles Police Department nearer to closing what had been an embarrassing chapter in its search for Dorner. The department still is reviewing the actions of two officers.

The city of Los Angeles Tuesday announced a $4.2 million settlement with two newspaper delivery women who were fired on by officers in Torrance during the manhunt for accused killer Christopher Dorner. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and attorney Glen Jonas, who represents Margie Carranza and her mother, Emma Hernandez, announced the settlement during a news conference. In March, the attorneys previously announced a $40,000 settlement giving the women a new truck.

The Department of Justice said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that cyclist Lance Armstrong was "unjustly enriched" while he used steroids to win multiple Tour de France titles. In the formal complaint, the Justice Department said they would seek triple damages against Armstrong, who admitted earlier this year that he doped to win his seven straight titles. The U.S. Postal Service paid some $40 million to appear as the title sponsor of Armstrong's team during six of those seven races. "Defendants were unjustly enriched to the extent of the payments and other benefits they received from the USPS, either directly...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Social Security's disability program is overwhelmed by so many claims that judges sometimes award benefits they might otherwise deny just to keep up with the flow of cases, according to a lawsuit filed by the judges themselves. The Social Security Administration says the agency's administrative law judges should decide 500 to 700 disability cases a year. The agency calls the standard a productivity goal, but the lawsuit claims it is an illegal quota that requires judges to decide an average of more than two cases per workday. "When the goals are too high, the easy way out...

SAN CARLOS, CA – The Calguns Foundation has filed a lawsuit on behalf of seven California residents today against Attorney General Kamala Harris, the California Department of Justice, and DOJ Bureau of Firearms Chief Stephen Lindley. The case challenges the DOJ’s policy of requiring some firearm purchasers to prove their legal standing to take possession of acquired firearms and forcing them to wait beyond the statutory 10-day waiting period. One plaintiff in the case, Daniel Schoepf of Long Beach, California, was denied his fundamental right to keep and bear arms for self-defense even after DOJ told him that he was...

Cop Claims Cell Phone Is A Weapon, Assaults Man For Recording

WALKERSVILLE — A gun rights group is taking aim at the town to try to force a change in its firearm restrictions. The Second Amendment Foundation, based in Bellevue, Wash., formally demanded that Walkersville repeal a ban on shooting and carrying loaded guns within town limits. "It has come to my attention that the town of Walkersville purports to regulate firearms, which violates of state law," Alan M. Gottlieb, foundation president, said in a March 26 letter. The town charter bans shooting "a rifle, air rifle or air gun of any kind ... a bow and arrow, slingshot, shotgun, gun...

A rare, salacious lawsuit against the elite DC private school drags high-profile Washingtonians into unwanted limelight and airs graphic e-mails from the psychologist who taught sex ed at the Obama daughters’ school. By Mary Yarrison, Harry Jaffe Comments (110) | Published April 9, 2013 The exceedingly messy lawsuit between Arthur “Terry” Newmyer and Sidwell Friends School is headed for trial—and the circle of high-profile Washingtonians wrapped up in the case is expanding. At a hearing last week, DC Superior Court judge Michael Rankin set a trial date of November 18, 2013. Newmyer first filed suit against Sidwell and its former...

Eric 'Himmler' Holder is trying to deport a German family granted political asylum in Tennessee due to being persecuted for homeschooling their family back in Germany. The appeal will be heard on April 23, 2013 at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. More details on the case hereClick excerpt link for Fox News report and please share it with your friends and pray for this brave family.

WASHINGTON, DC (Worthy News)– The Freedom From Religion Foundation is suing the U.S. Treasury Department to remove "In God We Trust" from all its currency. A nonprofit organization that represents atheists and agnostics, the FFRF claims the motto is "offensive" to the nonreligious. In February, the FFRF and 19 plaintiffs filed a civil suit in New York claiming the motto violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution; they also claim it forces atheists, agnostics and secular skeptics to impart a religious message they all decry whenever using U.S. currency, resulting in a false declaration of their own religious...

AKRON, Ohio, April 3, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A woman who underwent a failed abortion after being told by doctors that continuing her pregnancy would endanger her life is suing the abortion clinic, which she described as a “slaughterhouse,� following the birth of the baby girl she had intended to have killed. Ariel Knights, a dental technician from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, launched the malpractice lawsuit against Akron Women’s Medical Group and two doctors, alleging they failed to perform the abortion they told her was successful, which led to the birth of her daughter. She claims her decision to abort her...

CINCINNATI — A Jesus portrait that has hung in a southern Ohio school district since 1947 was taken down Wednesday, because of concerns about the potential costs of a federal lawsuit against its display. The superintendent of Jackson City Schools said the decision was made after the district’s insurance company declined to cover litigation expenses. He said the faculty adviser and two student members of the Hi-Y Club, a Christian-based service club that the school says owns the portrait, took it down at his direction. “At the end of the day, we just couldn’t roll the dice with taxpayer money,”...

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! NASA’s James Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a controversial and highly vocal voice of alarm about the planet’s changing climate, will retire as the director of the space institute, NASA announced Tuesday -- and plans to immediately sue his former employer. Hansen will step down from his $180,000 a year position to join a number of lawsuits challenging the federal and state governments for their failure to police industry over man’s effect on the climate, the New York Times reported. Hansen was clearly aware of the irony....

Hobby Lobby. Courtesy of the Becket Fund. Washington D.C., Apr 1, 2013 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Christian-owned craft giant Hobby Lobby will be able to make its appeal against the federal contraception mandate before a full federal panel of nine judges, rather than the usual three. “Full court review is reserved only for the most serious legal questions,� explained Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in a press release on March 29. The Becket Fund is representing the owners of Hobby Lobby in court.  Duncan said that the decision to grant a full...

Although it's widely believed that “Obamacare” is here to stay, one lawsuit is threatening to undo President Obama’s landmark health care bill.“A challenge filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation contends that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional because the bill originated in the Senate, not the House. Under the Origination Clause of the Constitution, all bills raising revenue must begin in the House,” the Washington Times notes.You may recall in June 2012 when the Supreme Court ruled on “Obamacare” that Chief Justice John Roberts defined the bill as a tax, not a mandate. This, according to the Times, is where...

The U.S. Supreme Court this morning rejected an appeal from former University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill in his effort to reclaim his job, a move that led university officials to declare "the matter is now over." The justices did not comment this morning in refusing to review a Colorado Supreme Court ruling in favor of the university.

When Edith Windsor got engaged in the 1960s to the woman who eventually became her wife, she asked for a pin instead of a ring. A ring would have meant awkward questions, she said: Who is he? Where is he? And when do we meet him? … Windsor said the spirit of her partner of 44 years was watching and listening Wednesday, and she called marriage a “magic word.” “For anybody who doesn’t understand why we want it and why we need it, OK, it is magic,” she told reporters. Windsor is asking the court to strike down Section 3...

The U.S. government won't appeal a court decision blocking it from requiring tobacco companies to put large graphic health warnings on cigarette packages. In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, Attorney General Eric Holder says the Food and Drug Administration will go back to the drawing board and propose new labels.

A wheelchair-bound man was awarded $8,000 by Disneyland after the "It's A Small World" ride broke, stranding him for a half hour while the theme song played continuously, according to an attorney for the plaintiff. Jose Martinez, who suffers from panic attacks and high blood pressure, did not medically stabilize for three hours after the ride broke down in 2009, attorney David Geffen said. "He has panic disorder and that was really what started everything rolling," Geffen said. "What caused the court concern, as well, because Disney was alerted about his panic problem and didn't call for the fire department...

The Supreme Court has ruled that police use of a drug-sniffing dog on a homeowner's porch is a violation of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. [...]

Today the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for about 80 minutes in Hollingsworth v. Perry, which is the lawsuit regarding California's Proposition 8. Two gay couples brought suit on the grounds that the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment prohibits the State of California from defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Since the State of California refuses to defend Proposition 8, opponents of gay marriage sought to enforce it in Hollingsworth v. Perry. Generally, citizens do not have legal standing to enforce laws with which they agree. Several justices expressed doubt that gay marriage...

On Fox News Sunday this morning, evangelical leader Gary Bauer and Republican strategist Nicole Wallace went head-to-head over the upcoming Supreme Court hearings on overturning Proposition 8, California’s controversial law banning same-sex marriages within the state. “You don’t advance limited government by being an anti-democratic movement that is attempting to take this issue away from the American people,” Bauer said of Wallace and other conservatives who submitted an amicus brief to the court. “What the brief is asking for and what the groups waiting outside the Supreme Court are asking for, is for unelected judges to deny the people of...

The National Rifle Association today filed a federal lawsuit against New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and other officials, seeking injunctive relief from the state’s Secure Ammunition and Firearms (SAFE) Act. This was the law for which Olympic Arms in Lacey announced in February that it would no longer do business with agencies in New York State. It’s the kind of law anti-gunners would like to see enacted in Washington and Oregon as “sensible” or “reasonable.” It limits magazine capacity to seven rounds, requires background checks for ammunition purchases, and requires that retailers report large ammunition sales...

House Republicans are standing strong in their pursuit of Operation Fast and Furious documents, The Hill’s Jordy Yager reports, undercutting a narrative the Department of Justice has tried to seep into the media. President Barack Obama asserted executive privilege over the documents minutes before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform voted Attorney General Eric Holder into both civil and criminal contempt of Congress last summer. The full House followed up voting on a bipartisan basis to hold Holder in contempt shortly thereafter, spurning the current lawsuit against the administration for the documents. The DOJ has declined to pursue...

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].

ROCHESTER (WWJ/AP) - A 57-year-old man suspended from Oakland University for writing about his attraction to teachers has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $2 million and four credits for the class. Joseph Corlett says his First Amendment rights were violated by university officials. The school suspended him for three semesters last year after saying he violated a policy against intimidating people on campus. He said he was also warned that he’d be arrested for criminal trespass if he entered the campus during his suspension.

(AP) Judge: US can't make Monaghan offer contraceptives DETROIT A judge has blocked the federal government from requiring the founder of Domino's Pizza to provide mandatory contraception coverage to his employees under the health care law. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff on Thursday granted a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the contraception provision of the law against Tom Monaghan and Domino's Farms Corp. near Ann Arbor, Mich.

President Obama will elevate the controversy over his recess appointment powers to the highest level, with the National Labor Relations Board announcing Tuesday it will appeal to the Supreme Court a lower-court ruling that held his appointments to the board were illegal. That move will put the thorny case straight before the justices, who will have to decide whether Mr. Obama overstepped his constitutional powers when he did an end-run around Congress last year and named three board members — using his recess-appointment powers at a time when the Senate considered itself still in session. In January a three-judge panel...

'Ain't Nobody Got Time For That' Viral-Video Star Does Have Time To Sue Apple Megan Rose DickeyMarch 12, 2013 She's suing over an iTunes song that sampled a few of her catchphrases, according to NewsOk. Sweet Brown got her first fifteen minutes of fame when she told a local TV-news station that she fled a burning apartment building because she suffered from bronchitis, and "ain't nobody got time for that." The video became a viral sensation, amassing 1 million views on YouTube within 48 hours. Sweet Brown is seeking to profit from her Internet fame by becoming a celebrity spokesperson—and...

In 1919, back when the United States was a constitutional republic, Congress passed a child labor law imposing a 10 percent excise tax on companies that violated it. A North Carolina furniture maker challenged the law and won. In 1922, the Supreme Court ruled in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture that although child labor laws have a noble purpose, the means – Congress using taxing power as a penalty – was unconstitutional. This was before Franklin Roosevelt’s court-packing threat in1937 ended the Supreme Court’s resistance to grandiose expansions of federal power. The child labor issue, by the way, was resolved when...

<p>A state judge on Monday stopped Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration from banning the sale of large sugary drinks at New York City restaurants and other venues, a major defeat for a mayor who has made public-health initiatives a cornerstone of his tenure.</p>

Why are liberal activists exerting themselves so fervently to attack the points made by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia last week during the oral arguments in the Shelby County v. Holder case? Perhaps the justices’ critics are desperate to retain the unconstitutional preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act, which have given the Obama administration political and legal leverage in redistricting and other election-law challenges. The chief justice provided some reason last June, in his decision in NFIB v. Sebelius, to believe that such attacks might cause him to change his mind. But the recent attacks are...

Guns: An Illinois court has ruled that the Second Amendment means what it says and has ordered the state legislature to adopt a law by June that lets citizens bear arms in self-defense, not just keep them. On Feb. 22, a 5-4 majority of the 10-member U.S. Seventh Court of Appeals upheld the Dec. 11 decision, which had been rendered by a three-member panel, to address absurdity and inconsistency of Illinois gun laws that allowed ownership of a firearm, but not the right to carry it outside the home. In other words, the "right to keep but not to bear...

Teri James is a deceiver. She pretended to be a faithful Christian when she applied for a job with San Diego Christian College, but proved to be an interloper. The 29-year-old knowingly and willingly signed the school’s “community covenant.” In so doing, she foreswore “abusive anger, malice, jealousy, lust, sexually immoral behavior including premarital sex, adultery, pornography and homosexuality, evil desires and prejudice based on race, sex or socioeconomic status.” Last October, James was summoned to her supervisor’s office. She acknowledged that she had broken the covenant by engaging in promiscuous sex – with a co-worker, no less – which...

FORT MYERS, Fla. - A 16-year-old Cypress Lake High School student, who wrestled a loaded revolver away from a teen threatening to shoot, is being punished. The student grappled the gun away from the 15-year-old suspect on the bus ride home Tuesday after witnesses say he aimed the weapon point blank at another student and threatened to shoot him. The student, who Fox 4 has agreed not to identify because he fears for his safety, says there's "no doubt" he saved a life by disarming the gunman. And for that he was suspended for three days.