Free Republic

NEW YORK--Three University of Virginia graduates on Wednesday filed a defamation lawsuit in New York against Rolling Stone magazine, its publisher Wenner Media and a journalist over a now-debunked 2014 article describing a fraternity gang rape. The three men, all 2013 graduates and members of Phi Kappa Psi, the fraternity at the center of the story, claim the magazine was negligent in publishing an article entitled "A Rape on Campus" by Sabrina Rudin Erdely. They are seeking damages for defamation and infliction of emotional distress. Rolling Stone apologized in December for "discrepancies" in the account, after the story sparked a...

Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley on Friday blasted Texas for denying birth certificates to some U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants without valid identification documents, declaring that “citizenship is a human right.” “Denying birth certificates to U.S, citizens is not only outrageous, it’s unconstitutional,” the former Maryland governor said in a statement released in English and Spanish. “The 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution could not be clearer. It states that ‘all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside,’ ” he...

Your butt-call might have been inadvertent, but that doesn’t mean you can expect privacy when someone listens on the other end. A Cincinnati federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a woman who took advantage of an accidental phone call to listen in on conversations between two of her bosses for 91 minutes. Carol Spaw listened to the entire call, taking written notes and even recording the last few minutes of audio with a nearby iPhone. Accidentally dialing a number from a phone in a pocket, or a butt-dial, is preventable, the court said. So caller James Huff had...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to have it his way with New York’s fast-food industry—and restaurant owners aren’t loving it. Franchise owners say they’re considering a lawsuit against Cuomo’s plan to raise the minimum wage in their eateries to $15 an hour, arguing that it is not fair or legal to be saddled with such a significant increase in labor costs that won’t apply to retail, landscaping, child care or other traditionally low-wage industries. “Singling out fast food restaurants while ignoring other industries that hire workers who are paid under $15 is unfair and discriminatory, harms New York workers, and puts...

I was interested to read the article from The Sun News on Thursday about the last-minute delay of the permit to pave International Drive. This project will take thousands of cars off of the gridlock of Highway 501, and relieve congestion in Carolina Forest. On the day before we were to receive the permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coastal Conservation League filed an appeal. It seems they want the road to be redesigned to include multiple bear crossings, at a cost of millions of dollars to the taxpayers of Horry County. That’s millions of scarce taxpayer dollars...

A Cullman-based attorney has filed a lawsuit against Alabama's governor saying Robert Bentley didn't have the authority to remove Confederate flags from the grounds of the state Capitol. The lawsuit states the Alabama Historical Commission didn't follow its mandate and the governor "overstepped his authority" when four Confederate flags were removed from the Confederate Memorial Monument on June 24. Melvin Hasting filed the suit on behalf of himself in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Tuesday afternoon. The suit lists Bentley, Alabama Historical Commission and its acting executive director Lisa Jones as defendants. Hasting is asking the court for a preliminary...

A man is suing the Boy Scouts of America and its St. Paul-based council, alleging that the organization failed to protect him from the same man who is accused of having sexually abused Ramsey County Board Chairman Jim McDonough.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The family of a black man who died after being placed in a white police officer's chokehold is holding a news conference Tuesday to discuss the $5.9 million settlement it reached with the city days before the anniversary of his death.The news conference will be held by attorneys for Eric Garner's family and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who is calling on New Yorkers to attend a rally Saturday in honor of Garner and other victims of police misconduct.

We at the NRA have seen a lot of strange legal theories asserted by gun control advocates over the years, but a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by a group of Chicagoans still managed to distinguish itself in this dubious tradition by asserting that the plaintiffs have a “civil right” to specific forms of gun control. The basis of the lawsuit is a May 27, 2014 “study” published by the City of Chicago entitled, “Tracing the Guns: The Impact of Illegal Guns on Violence in Chicago.”The report finds that a disproportionate number of guns recovered from crime scenes in Chicago from 2009...

The complaint contends that MLB stadiums only have enough safety netting to protect “VIP” patrons in the most expensive seats immediately near the home plate area and leaves the rest of the lower level seats at risk for injury. The lawsuit is seeking class-action status to represent anyone who purchased a season ticket to a major or minor league baseball game and whose seats are located in any exposed area between home plate and the the right and left field foul poles. Rather than looking for a cash payout, the plaintiff is asking for the court to require that all...

Rapper 50 Cent filed for bankruptcy on Monday. The news came as bit of a surprise since The New York Times just described him as a man of "exceptional business instincts" less than a week ago. In May, Forbes pegged his net worth at $155 million. 50 Cent, aka Curtis Jackson III, reportedly earned between $60 million and $100 million from a stake in Vitamin Water when it sold to Coca-Cola in 2007, according to The Washington Post. Yet in the abbreviated Chapter 11 filing Monday, Jackson's lawyers said that his assets range from $10 million to $50 million, including...

Homophobic Everyone knew that the Supremes’ obscene gay marriage decree would lead to churches being sued for not betraying their faith with sacrilegious parodies of wedding ceremonies. But this enterprising homofascist decided to cut to the chase and go right after the Bible: A homosexual man has filed a $70 million lawsuit against Bible publishers Zondervan and Thomas Nelson, alleging that their version of the Bible that refers to homosexuality as a sin violates his constitutional rights and has caused him emotional distress. According to the Christian Post, ex-con turned author Bradley LaShawn Fowler filed the federal suit in the...

DENVER, July 7 (UPI) -- A Colorado appeals court is scheduled Tuesday to hear the case of Jack Phillips, a baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay wedding. Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips is appealing an order he received to cease his anti-gay policy or face fines instead. The dispute began in 2012, when gay newlyweds Charlie Craig and David Mullins visited the bakery in Denver after being married in Massachussetts.

A federal court has declared that former Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson lied about her personal knowledge of certain facts and misrepresented negotiations between her legal team and lawyers representing her fellow Supreme Court justices. “[T]he Abrahamson affidavit contains some statements that are not based on personal knowledge and that falsely portray the negotiation of the stipulated facts,” wrote Judge James Peterson in a June 10 decision striking portions of Abrahamson’s filing from the court record. Peterson was appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama. Since April, when state voters ratified a constitutional amendment changing how...

Donald Trump has to put his mouth where his money is. The Republican presidential candidate will have to answer questions under oath about his net worth - and about how much money he raked in from his now-defunct Trump University, a California federal court judge ruled this week. Lawyers for The Donald had contended he didn't have to answer questions in a civil racketeering lawsuit about how much money he made from the "school" because he'd already acknowledged under oath that he had "significant involvement with both the operations and overall business strategy of Trump University." In a ruling Tuesday,...

I wonder what took them so long. Three business days after the Obergefell decision that recognized same-sex marriage as a constitutional right, Nathan Collier decided to demand that the Montana state government recognize that love is love … is love. And if they don’t issue a marriage license to formally recognize his plural arrangement, Collier says he intends to sue: A Montana man said Wednesday that he was inspired by last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage to apply for a marriage license so that he can legally wed his second wife.Nathan Collier and his wives Victoria...

Nathan Collier and his wives Victoria and Christine applied at the Yellowstone County Courthouse in Billings on Tuesday in an attempt to legitimize their polygamous marriage. Montana, like all 50 states, outlaws bigamy — holding multiple marriage licenses — but Collier said he plans to sue if the application is denied.

If you read the title there’s not much more of an intro to do, really. Let’s just get to the case. Oklahoma’s Supreme Court said New Dominion LLC can be sued for damage caused by an earthquake that a woman blames on disposal wells tied to fracking, in what may be the first such case to head to a jury trial.Sandra Ladra sued New Dominion and Spess Oil Co. for injuries suffered to her knees and legs in November 2011, when a 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck near her home in central Oklahoma. She said the tremor caused the rock...

Tom DeLay appeared on Newsmax TV yesterday, where he told host Steve Malzberg that, just as he had predicted, all Hell is now breaking loose because of the Supreme Court ruling striking down gay marriage bans. Things are now so out of control, DeLay said, that he even knows about a "secret memo" from the Justice Department aimed at legalizing "12 new perversions," including bestiality and pedophilia. "We've already found a secret memo coming out of the Justice Department," DeLay claimed. "They're now going to go after 12 new perversions, things like bestiality, polygamy, having sex with little boys and...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, tells Breitbart News exclusively that he’s appalled by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) decision to turn against defending civil liberties. “Their hypocrisy is absolutely stunning,” Jindal said when asked about how the ACLU’s website, and their legal argument history, is filled with defenses of religious liberty. ... Jindal’s interview with Breitbart News came just hours after the ACLU announced it would be suing Jindal over an executive order he issued in the state of Louisiana aimed at protecting religious freedom. The executive order, as Breitbart News reported, tried to protect...