Free Republic

The Supreme Court on Monday sided with law enforcement in a pair of cases that implicated “qualified immunity,” the controversial legal doctrine that gives police broad protection from lawsuits. In a pair of unsigned summary rulings issued without noted dissent, the justices reversed two federal appeals courts that had permitted excessive force lawsuits to proceed against officers in separate cases arising from California and Oklahoma. The justices ruled the officers should be granted qualified immunity, which shields government officials from liability unless it is proven they violated a “clearly established” right, a difficult legal hurdle. Both lawsuits dealt with police...

In 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, (10th Cir., July 26, 2021), the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the application of Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act to a wedding website design company whose owner for religious reasons refuses to create websites that celebrate same-sex marriages. The Act bars refusing services because of a customer's sexual orientation and publishing any communication that indicates such discriminatory practices. The majority conceded that the law compelled speech and acted as a content-based restriction. However the majority found that it nevertheless was constitutional because it was narrowly tailored to further a compelling state interest. The majority...

AColorado web designer is appealing a ruling made Monday by the 10th Circuit Court that rejected her challenge of Colorado's anti-discrimination law and requires her to create wedding websites for same-sex couples despite it violating her religious beliefs. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled 2 – 1 the state can force Lorie Smith of studio 303 Creative to design and publish websites promoting messages that go against her personal religious beliefs. The law at issue also prevents Smith from explaining on her company's website what sites she can create that are consistent with her beliefs. By...

A federal appeals court on Wednesday backed a lower court’s ruling that a Kansas voter identification law crafted by former Secretary of State Kris Kobach is unconstitutional and violates the National Voter Registration Act. The law heralded by Kobach took effect in 2013 and mandates that people provide documentation proving U.S. citizenship before being allowed to register to vote. The decision from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes after a federal district court struck down the law on the same grounds. The judges said the state had failed to provide convincing arguments in its appeal that Kansas was...

Kansas cannot demand that new voters who register under the federal Motor-Voter law prove citizenship before their applications will be accepted, a U.S. appeals court ruled Wednesday. The two judges of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Kansas at best proved only a few noncitizens registered to vote each year, and said that wasn’t as bad as more than 30,000 would-be voters who were prevented from registering because of the citizenship requirement. “The significant burden quantified by the 31,089 voters who had their registration applications canceled or suspended requires us to increase the ‘rigorousness of our inquiry,’ …...

A New Mexico judge on Friday ruled that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's stay-at-home order does not violate an Albuquerque church's First Amendment rights. The church, First Legacy, sued after Lujan Grisham added churches to the state's list of nonessential activities in an emergency health order on the day before Easter, meaning that no more than five people can gather at a service. In the church's filing, it alleged that the order violated the First Amendment because the church needs more than five people to put on a service. First Legacy asked for a temporary restraining order on Lujan Grisham's executive...

Under orders from pro-abortion Governor Laura Kelly, Kansans can be punished for going to church because of the coronavirus, but abortion facilities in the state continue to jeopardize lives by killing unborn babies. However, a court put a temporary stop to that over the weekend. Kelly’s executive order, issued just before Easter, bans religious services of more than 10 people. It also allows religious leaders and their congregants to be punished with fines of up to $2,500 and 12 months in jail for violations. Meanwhile, abortion businesses, including one in Wichita that kills unborn children in late-term abortions, can remain...

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals let stand a lower court’s decision temporarily blocking Gov. Kevin Stitt’s ban on abortion care in Oklahoma during the coronavirus pandemic. This means abortion providers in the state can continue providing essential, time-sensitive abortion care. Abortion providers will now seek a preliminary injunction from the district court which will continue to block the ban from taking effect until the case concludes. “Today Oklahomans can breathe a temporary sigh of relief. But the fight is not over. Instead of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Stitt is wasting valuable time and...

U.S. District Court Judge Carlos Murguia will resign from the bench effective April 1, 2020. In a resignation letter addressed to President Trump, Murguia wrote, “I have been honored to serve in this position since 1999, and my tenure on the Court has been the highlight of my professional life. In recent months, it has become clear that I can no longer effectively serve the Court in this capacity.” Murguia, a native of Kansas City, Kansas, was publicly reprimanded Sept. 30, 2019, by the Judicial Council of the Tenth Circuit. The Council found that Murguia “gave preferential treatment and unwanted...

The 10th Circuit has issued an opinion that convictions of municipal and local ordinances for domestic violence do not remove a person's rights under the Second Amendment. Current federal law makes a person who has been convicted of domestic violence under "Federal, State, or Tribal law" a prohibited possessor who may not legally purchase or possess firearms or ammunition. In this case, U.S.A. v. Pauler, the defendant, Alexander J. Pauler, had been convicted of violating a Wichita, Kansas municipal ordinance against domestic violence. From hutchnews.com: WICHITA – A Kansas man convicted of misdemeanor domestic battery under a city ordinance...

President Donald Trump tonight has nominated pro-life friendly federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Gorsuch has taken the pro-life side in important cases and written a book excoriating assisted suicide. The 49-year-old Judge Gorsuch, if confirmed, would replace pro-life Justice Antonin Scalia – who supporting overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states to once again provide legal protection for unborn children. Justice Gorsuch is currently a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which includes the districts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, as well as the Eastern, Northern...

It appears that, until the nation’s highest court decides to protect the expressly enumerated Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms as strongly as it does non-enumerated rights like gay marriage and abortion, law-abiding American gun owners are simply left to watch lower courts unravel the Constitution and our fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms in decisions like Bonidy.

Tonight, Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he's obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson's brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

COURT SAYS CHURCH CAN USE HALLUCINOGENIC TEA DENVER - A New Mexico church was handed a small victory Thursday when a federal appeals court ruled its use of hallucinogenic tea was likely to be protected under freedom of religion laws. The ruling, issued by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, upheld a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Attorney General, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other government agencies that sought to prohibit the tea's use. The appeals court agreed with the U.S. District Court in New Mexico that the Brazil-based O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal church had...