Free Republic

A federal appeals court on Thursday lifted several injunctions that were blocking the Trump administration’s rule restricting immigration eligibility for individuals deemed likely to become public charges. “Public charge” denotes immigrants who are likely to require government assistance, such as food stamps or Medicaid. The Trump administration had moved to restrict the number of new immigrants who would require such assistance, but several courts blocked the rule in October before it could take effect. In its 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed preliminary injunctions against the administration’s rule from federal courts in Washington and California. The rule...

A federal appeals court Friday threw out the 22-year sentence imposed on Algerian Ahmed Ressam for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium. The three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to U.S. District Court in Seattle to recalculate a sentence for his conviction on nine felony counts. It was the second time the appellate court has scrapped Ressam's sentence. The San Francisco-based panel noted that the U.S. Supreme Court reversal of its first decision to vacate the term failed to take into consideration recent federal sentencing guidelines...

<p>No court decision in years has so aroused the nation and Congress as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling that the phrase, "under God," in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. And the outrage continues.</p> <p>The Rev. Jerry Falwell has urged a campaign of mass civil disobedience by school officials to keep "under God" in the pledge. So has the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. And George W. Bush's reaction to the inflammatory decision is that it proves the nation's need for "common sense judges who understand that our rights were derived from God."</p>