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The Supreme Court of Virginia has ruled against Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s order restoring voting rights to more than 200,000 felons who completed their sentences, a decision that dealt a major blow to the Democratic governor and has implications for the November presidential race in the crucial swing state. In a 4-3 ruling issued Friday, the court ruled that McAuliffe overstepped his clemency powers under the state constitution by issuing a sweeping order in April restoring rights to all ex-offenders who are no longer incacerated or on probation or parole. The court agreed with state Republicans who challenge McAuliffe’s order, arguing...

WASHINGTON — The Virginia Supreme Court has struck down executive orders issued by Gov. Terry McAuliffe that would have allowed more than 200,000 felons to register to vote and participate in the November presidential election. The decision, issued late Friday, requires registrars to strike the names of any felons who registered to vote under the umbrella of three executive orders McAuliffe signed this year. The order gives county and state officials a month to strike those names. Chief Justice Donald Lemons wrote the decision. Three justices issued dissenting opinions. In April, McAuliffe restored the civil rights of felons who had...

The U.S. Justice Department is suing a suburban Philadelphia town, alleging its denial of a permit for a mosque in 2014 constituted religious discrimination. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the suit was filed Thursday and seeks to have Bensalem give the Bensalem Masjid approval to build the mosque, provide training for township employees on religious land-use laws and pay unspecified damages. …

MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin residents who can't obtain photo identification will still be able to vote in November's general election, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, carving out an exception to state law that requires all voters to show photo IDs at the polls. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee issued a preliminary injunction that allows people who haven't been able to obtain IDs to vote in the Nov. 8 election if they sign an affidavit explaining why they couldn't get identification. But the judge declined to make that option available for the Aug. 9 primary, saying state election officials...

U.S. officials have wrongly allowed the Navy to use sonar at levels that could harm whales and other marine mammals in the world’s oceans, a federal appeals court in San Francisco has ruled. The decision Friday by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would scale back the Navy’s use of low-frequency sonar in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans and the Mediterranean Sea under authority that was granted in 2012.

Federal Court Sides With Grassroots Activists: RNC Delegates Are Bound to Follow Election Results Delegates Remain Committed to Donald J. Trump; Anti-Trump Effort Dealt Crippling Blow (New York) July 11, 2016 – Senior United States District Judge Robert E. Payne today ruled in favor of Trump campaign delegates who had argued – in line with overwhelming public opinion – that RNC delegates must follow election results and that delegates cannot be stolen at the national convention. Delegate Beau Correll, Jr., had brought the suit against the Commonwealth of Virginia hoping to reject the will of the voters, but was soundly...

"For the foregoing reasons, judgment will be entered in Correll'sfavor on Counts I and II and the Commonwealth will be permanently enjoined from enforcing Va.Code§ 24.2-545(0)." Federal Court just UNBOUND the delegates for Virgina. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3174287/Correll.pdf

It started out with hints of official, United States governmental oppression of Christianity as soon as same-sex “marriage” became a bullet point for activists – little things like “discrimination” complaints that those choosing alternative sexual lifestyles somehow weren’t applauded as they thought they deserved. Then it became confrontational for Christians who were simply choosing to live by their beliefs – beliefs similar to those held by the nation’s founders. Bakers were penalized for not promoting homosexuality, ditto for photographers and venue owners. Government officials publicly vilified their Christian faith and ordered them, in some case, re-educated. Now two rulings have...

The U.S. Supreme Court vacated former Gov. Bob McDonnell's conviction on corruption charges Monday morning. The decision was unanimous, according to SCOTUSblog, which is tracking opinion releases this morning in Washington, D.C. The court overturned a decsion that rose out of the U.S. District Court in Richmond, then was affirmed by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. The nut of the government's case against McDonnell, and his wife Maureen, was this: In taking some $177,000 in gifts and loans from businessman Jonnie Williams, and then setting meetings Williams sought to gain legitimacy for a controversial dietary supplement, the McDonnells engaged...

The Supreme Court struck down Texas abortion restrictions that had caused more than half of the state’s abortion clinics to close.

A federal appeals court in Richmond has ruled that a transgender high school student who was born as a female can sue his school board on discrimination grounds because it banned him from the boys’ bathroom. In backing high school junior Gavin Grimm, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit deferred to the U.S. Education Department’s position that transgender students should have access to the bathrooms that match their gender identities rather than being forced to use bathrooms that match their biological sex. The department has said that requiring transgender students to use a bathroom that corresponds with...

A Virginia school board must allow a transgender teen to use the boys restroom while the court considers the legal issues of his case, a federal district judge ruled Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge Robert G. Doumar’s order directs the Gloucester County School board to let Gavin Grimm use the bathroom that corresponds to his gender identity when he returns for his senior year of high school this fall. […] The order comes after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in April that the school board’s policy barring Grimm from using the boys restroom violated Title IX, the...

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to a race-conscious admissions program at the University of Texas, Austin, handing supporters of affirmative action a major victory. The vote was 4-3. Only seven justices participated in the decision. Justice Elena Kagan had recused herself for prior work on the case as United States solicitor general and the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat remains vacant. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., dissented....

Breaking news by Stu Varney. Supreme Court was tied 4 to 4, so the lower court decision stands against Obama's Immigration plan.

BALTIMORE — The Baltimore police officer who drove the van in which Freddie Gray sustained a fatal spinal injury was acquitted on Thursday of second-degree murder and six lesser charges, leaving prosecutors still without a conviction after three high-profile trials in a case that has shaken this city. In his ruling, Judge Barry G. Williams rejected the prosecution’s claim that the officer, Caesar R. Goodson Jr., had given Mr. Gray a “rough ride” in the van, intentionally putting him at risk for an injury by taking a wide turn while Mr. Gray was not secured with a seatbelt. “The court...

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has rejected challenges to assault weapons bans in Connecticut and New York, in the aftermath of the shooting attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that left 50 people dead. ADVERTISEMENT The justices on Monday left in place a lower court ruling that upheld laws that were passed in response to another mass shooting involving a semi-automatic weapon, the elementary school attack in Newtown, Connecticut. The Supreme Court has repeatedly turned away challenges to gun restrictions since two landmark decisions that spelled out the right to a handgun to defend one's own home.

Supreme Court Rules for Police in Search Case he Supreme Court ruled Monday that evidence of a crime may be used against a defendant even if the police did something wrong or illegal in obtaining it. The justices voted 5-3 to reinstate the drug-related convictions of a Utah man. The ruling comes in a case in which a police detective illegally stopped defendant Joseph Edward Strieff on the streets of South Salt Lake City, Utah. A name check revealed an outstanding warrant for Strieff. Strieff was placed under arrest and searched. He was carrying methamphetamine. Justice Clarence Thomas said for...

Oregon resident Jamie Shupe, who identifies as neither male nor female, can legally be considered nonbinary, a judge ruled. In what legal experts believe is the state's first such ruling, Judge Amy Holmes Hehn ruled Friday that Shupe's sex has been changed from female to nonbinary. "It feels amazing to be free from a binary sex classification system that inadequately addressed who I really am, a system in which I felt confined," the Portland resident said. The Army veteran was assigned the gender of male at birth, but Shupe started transitioning to a female in 2013, more than a decade...

The Justice Department has settled with an Iranian-American immigration judge who alleged that her superiors had ordered her not to hear cases involving Iranian nationals.

Millions have gone into the effort to attack voter identification laws in numerous states Hillary Clinton’s top campaign lawyer lost a challenge against Virginia’s voter identification laws that was fueled by money from liberal billionaire George Soros. The lawsuit, filed early last year on behalf of the Democratic Party of Virginia, sought to end Virginia’s voter identification law, known as SB 1256. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal court Thursday after a lengthy trial that saw numerous witnesses testify, dealing a blow to an organized effort by the left to take on voter ID laws in numerous states leading...