Free Republic

Conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court might have already tipped their hand on the latest substantial legal threat to Obamacare, according to one Yale law professor. And if they did, it would be good news for the Obama administration. A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled Tuesday that Obamacare's language did not allow people shopping on HealthCare.gov to access tax credits if they purchase insurance through the federal website. If that decision were to become law, affecting the 36 states served by the federal exchange, it would strip subsidies from nearly 5 million people and send their premiums skyrocketing....

The New Jersey teenager who sued her parents has received a domestic violence restraining order against the boyfriend her mom and dad always hated. Rachel Canning, 18, made headlines last year when she moved out of her family's Lincoln Park home, then demanded her parents pay her child support. The family had been fighting for months over Rachel's wild behavior.... .....

The New Jersey teen who made headlines when she sued her parents for child support after moving out of their home was back in court Wednesday, this time to obtain a temporary restraining order against her boyfriend, The Star-Ledger reported. Rachael Canning, the honor student who sued her parents earlier this year for $650 a week, the remainder of her Catholic school tuition and attorney fees, obtained the order against her beau, Lucas Kitzmiller, 18. He was the teen her parents reportedly asked her to stop seeing at the time of the initial suit. Canning' father said Kitzmiller choked her...

A surprising ruling from the notoriously liberal DC Circuit Court. By a 2-1 vote, judges ruled that the subsidies received by purchasing insurance through healthcare.gov website are invalid. In a potentially crippling blow to Obamacare, a federal appeals court panel declared Tuesday that government subsidies worth billions of dollars that helped 4.7 million people buy insurance on HealthCare.gov are illegal. A judicial panel in a 2-1 ruling said such subsidies can be granted only to those people who bought insurance in an Obamacare exchange run by an individual state or the District of Columbia — not on the federally run...

A federal judge said Monday that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) cannot challenge the Obamacare policy that lawmakers and their staff obtain health insurance through the exchanges. The ruling could prove ominous for House Republicans as they prepare to file suit against the Obama administration, also against Obamacare. That suit would focus on a different issue, the president’s delay of the employer mandate. Judge William C. Griesbach, a George W. Bush appointee, said that Article III of the Constitution prevents Johnson’s lawsuit from moving forward and suggests that any remedy must come from Congress. He said that the Wisconsin Republican cannot...

Johns Hopkins Hospital has agreed to a $190 million settlement with more than 8,000 patients of a gynecologist who secretly photographed and videotaped women's bodies in the examining room with a pen-like camera he wore around his neck, lawyers said Monday. Dr. Nikita Levy was fired in February 2013, days after an employee alerted hospital authorities about her suspicions. Levy committed suicide 10 days later. Investigators discovered roughly 1,200 videos and 140 images in his home. "All of these women were brutalized by this," said the women's lead attorney, Jonathan Schochor. "Some of these women needed counseling, they were sleepless,...

A Florida jury has awarded the widow of a chain smoker who died of lung cancer punitive damages of more than $23 billion in her lawsuit against the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the nation's second-biggest cigarette maker. The judgment, returned on Friday night, was the largest in Florida history in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a single plaintiff, according to Ryan Julison, a spokesman for the woman's lawyer, Chris Chestnut. After a four-week trial and 11 hours of jury deliberations, the jury returned a verdict granting the widow $7.3 million and the couple's son $9.6 million in compensatory damages....

Do you know that the verdict in this case actually limited the Court’s power? Following the loss of the presidency and Congress in the election of 1800, the lame-duck Federalist Congress enacted the Judiciary Act of February 3, 1801, creating 58 new federal judgeships and new circuit courts. Two weeks later, Congress created 42 justices of the peace in the District of Columbia. Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth resigned, and President John Adams named Secretary of State John Marshall to replace him. The judicial commissions were signed by President Adams, and the Seal of the United States affixed by the Secretary...

A Florida jury has slammed the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. with $23.6 billion in punitive damages in a lawsuit filed by the widow of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer in 1996. The case is one of thousands filed in Florida after the state Supreme Court in 2006 tossed out a $145 billion class action verdict. That ruling also said smokers and their families need only prove addiction and that smoking caused their illnesses or deaths. Last year, Florida's highest court re-approved that decision, which made it easier for sick smokers or their survivors to pursue lawsuits against...

Separation Of Powers: John Boehner's lawsuit against President Obama is being mocked by the very same people who dismissed an earlier challenge to Obama's imperial ways — one the Supreme Court unanimously upheld. That case involved Obama's decision in early 2012 to make "recess" appointments to several key posts, though the Senate was still in session. As with Boehner's proposed suit, it was widely ridiculed as a "political stunt" without legal merit that would end up backfiring on the GOP. Laurence Tribe, the left's favorite constitutional law professor, said, "Whatever standards the courts ultimately adopt . .. this case ought...

Whenever Democrats are in real trouble politically, the Republicans seem to come up with something new that distracts the public's attention from the Democrats' problems. Who says Republicans are not compassionate? With public opinion polls showing President Obama's sinking approval rate, in the wake of his administration's multiple fiascoes and scandals — the disgraceful treatment of veterans who need medical care, the Internal Revenue Service coverups, the tens of thousands of children flooding across our open border — Republicans have created two new distractions that may yet draw attention away from the Democrats' troubles. From the Republican establishment, Speaker of...

President Obama’s old Harvard Law professor, Laurence Tribe, said that he “wouldn’t bet the family farm” on Obamacare’s surviving the legal challenges to an IRS rule about who is eligible for subsidies that are currently working their way through the federal courts. “I don’t have a crystal ball,” Tribe told the Fiscal Times. “But I wouldn’t bet the family farm on this coming out in a way that preserves Obamacare.” The law’s latest legal problem is that, as written, people who enroll in Obamacare through the federal exchange aren’t eligible for subsidies. The text of the law only provides subsidies...

The rule of the law and the separation of powers are indispensable to our system of government. And yet, according to House Republicans, the president has violated his oath of office one too many times by encroaching on the rights of the legislative branch and re-writing laws as he sees fit. Hence why Republican House Speaker John Boehner is filing a lawsuit against him. Obviously, there are many examples of President Obama circumventing Congress to advance his legislative agenda, but the Speaker of the House ultimately decided to sue him for a very specific reason: He unilaterally delayed implementing a...

However, since the election, the McDaniel campaign quickly found 1,000 examples in one county of Democrats who voted in the June 3rd primary as Democrats and then crossed over into the Republican primary this week. This is illegal and their votes should not be counted. The Chris McDaniel for Senate campaign identified multiple Mississippi counties where this occurred. McDaniel supporters were barred from reviewing voter rolls in nine Mississippi counties. On Thursday True the Vote, the nation’s largest voter integrity organization, filed a lawsuit against the Mississippi Republican Party for destruction of absentee ballot documents, double voting and discarded legal...

For the past four years, Flint Dollar has been teaching music at Mount de Sales Academy, a Catholic school in Macon, Ga. He is, by all accounts, beloved by his students. But Dollar won't be leading the band or teaching the chorus in the fall. His contract was not renewed after administrators found out he plans to marry a man. Under federal anti-discrimination laws, employers are not prohibited from hiring or firing people on the basis of sexual orientation. Dollar is working to change that. He says when he was hired, he was honest with school administrators about his sexual...

A vote on the resolution to authorize the legal action is set for the week before August break. Starting next week, House Republicans will launch a highly visible—and likely tumultuous—three-week process of bringing to the floor legislation to authorize their promised lawsuit against President Obama over his use of executive actions. "In theory, you could report out a resolution tomorrow and vote on it," said a House GOP aide on Tuesday. "But that is not the approach [the leaders] want to take." Rather, the aim is to display—if not actually engage in—a more deliberative process, even if amid controversy. This...

John Boehner’s plan, in which he proposes to sue President Barack Obama for violating the Constitutional role of the presidency, is important and brilliant. I am an attorney, with a keen interest in both politics and law. I have read and studied the U.S. Supreme Court precedents in question. Pundits with incorrect analyses make three wrong objections: (1) Congress does not have legal “standing” to be the plaintiff to bring a successful lawsuit. (2) The Courts are reluctant to get involved in disputes between Congress and the Executive Branch. (3) Congress has other tools and Boehner is off-base using a...

<p>A Sanford judge today put an end to George Zimmerman's libel suit against NBC Universal.</p> <p>Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson ruled that the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer is entitled to no money from the media giant.</p> <p>She issued a summary judgment in the network's favor, meaning that unless an appeals court reverses her, the case is now dead.</p>

From Charles C Johnson: BREAKING: McDaniel campaign is filing legal challenge on Monday. #mssen — Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 29, 2014 Charles is a definite MUST follow for those interested in the criminality in the Mississippi election. He has been doing an incredible job covering things. McDaniel tells me: "They aren't going to steal this election." #mssen — Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 29, 2014 McDaniel says that he's drawing line in the sand, in it "for as long as it takes for justice to be done." #mssen — Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) June 29, 2014 #McDaniel: "Whatever it...

This week House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced he was going to sue President Obama for abuse of executive authority. “Time-after-time the President has acted without proper authority,” Boehner charged. “He has refused to faithfully execute laws that require his action. Worse, he has endeavored to exercise legislative authority that the Constitution relegates to Congress. We are going to ask the Court to put a stop to this.” President Obama laughed off the lawsuit calling it “a stunt designed to cover for Congress’ failure to govern. If Congress were to do its job and pass the legislation I’ve directed them...