Free Republic

Within a matter of months, almost half of the judges on the powerful 11th circuit court of appeals will have been appointed by President Trump. On Thursday, Judge Stanley Marcus, a Clinton appointee, announced he will take senior status on the federal appeals court in Atlanta. Marcus’s decision, first reported by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, comes one month after another jurist on the same court, Judge Gerald Tjoflat, announced he would become a senior judge with a reduced case load. The 11th Circuit covers Alabama, Georgia and Florida, and because of the significant numbers of African Americans in all three states,...

<p>WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted narrowly on Tuesday to confirm Britt Grant to Atlanta’s 11th U.S. Circuit, greenlighting the Georgia Supreme Court justice for a lifetime position on the powerful federal appeals court that frequently takes on hotly contested issues such as gun rights and the death penalty.</p>

The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) has won a last-minute reprieve from enforcement of a federal mandate calling for required coverage of contraceptives in employees' health-care programs. Citing the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby decision announced by the Supreme Court on June 30, the 11th federal circuit appeals court issued an injunction blocking fines that would have been assessed against EWTN beginning on July 1 for a failure to comply with the contraceptive mandate. The 11th circuit court found, in issuing its order, that EWTN "has asserted, without dispute, that it 'is prohibited by its religion from signing, submitting, or facilitating...

His death warrant was signed, and he had already taken an anxiety-calming sedative and said his final goodbyes to his loved ones. But supporters of this Georgia death-row inmate soon became elated after learning that Atlanta’s 11th U.S. Circuit of Appeals Court and the Georgia Court of Appeals both granted temporary reprieves just a half hour before Warren Hill’s state-sponsored murder was slated to begin at 7 p.m. on Feb. 19. In a 2-1 decision, the federal judges decided that more reviews of the doctors’ statements were necessary. Still, Hill faces strict requirements to get his case reconsidered. “If this...

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) stole a march on the Obama Administration this morning by filing a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court appealing the 11th Circuit’s Obamacare decision. The Department of Justice (DOJ) had announced on Monday that it was not going to ask all 11 judges of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to review en banc the August 12 decision of a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit that found the individual mandate unconstitutional. This opened up a path to an appeal by DOJ to the Supremes. However, with this petition, the NFIB jumped ahead...

A federal appeals court has thrown out the 17-year prison sentence imposed on convicted terrorism plotter Jose Padilla. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the sentence imposed by a Miami federal judge was too lenient. The appeals court sent the case back for a new sentencing hearing.

ACLJ Calls 11th Circuit Decision "Critical Step Forward in Undoing ObamaCare" WASHINGTON, Aug. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which is actively challenging ObamaCare, said today's decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declaring the individual mandate of ObamaCare unconstitutional represents a "critical step forward in undoing ObamaCare.""The appeals court got it right and the decision represents a critical step forward in undoing ObamaCare," said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ, which is involved in litigation challenging ObamaCare. "The individual mandate, which forces Americans to purchase health insurance, exceeds the authority...

(CNSNews.com) -- While a federal appeals court ruled today that the mandate in Obamacare requiring individuals to purchase health insurance was unconstitutional, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dismissed a question in 2009 about Congress' constitutional authority to impose such a mandate. At the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 22, 2009, CNSNews.com asked Leahy, “Where, in your opinion, does the Constitution give specific authority for Congress to give an individual mandate for health insurance?” Leahy said, "We have plenty of authority. Are you saying there is no authority? … Why would you say there is no authority?...

(Reuters) - An appeals court ruled on Friday that President Barack Obama's healthcare law requiring Americans to buy healthcare insurance or face a penalty was unconstitutional, a blow to the White House. The Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, found that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to buy coverage, but also ruled that the rest of the wide-ranging law could remain in effect. The legality of the so-called individual mandate, a cornerstone of the healthcare law, is widely expected to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Obama administration has defended the provision as...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House is expressing confidence that it's constitutional to require people to have health insurance and believes that President Barack Obama's health care law will be survive all legal challenges in the end. Obama adviser Stephanie Cutter says the White House strongly disagrees with an appeals court ruling Friday that struck down the insurance requirement at the center of a law.

A top Obama administration lawyer defending last year's healthcare law ran into skeptical questions Wednesday from three federal judges here, who suggested they may be ready to declare all or part of the law unconstitutional. And in an ominous sign for the administration, the judges opened the arguments by saying they knew of no case in American history where the courts had upheld the government's power to force someone to buy a product. "I can't find any case like this," said Chief Judge Joel Dubina of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. "If we uphold this, are there any limits"...

A former Florida college professor who pleaded guilty to aiding a Palestinian terrorist group was not immune from a subpoena forcing him to testify in an unrelated probe of Muslim charities, an appeals court ruled Friday. Sami Al-Arian, 50, had argued the terms of the plea agreement exempted him from testifying before a grand jury in an investigation of Islamic charities in Virginia. A federal judge disagreed and found Al-Arian guilty of contempt when he refused to testify. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Al-Arian's appeal Friday, ruling that federal prosecutors did not violate the plea agreement by...

11th Circuit rules school was in its power to suspend teen in light of other incidents of school violence across nation. CITING SCHOOL SCHOOTINGS from Columbine to Virginia Tech, a federal appeals court has ruled against a local student suspended in 2003 after a teacher saw a story the student had written in which the narrator dreams of shooting her math teacher. Rachel Boim, who was a ninth-grader at Roswell High School when the incident occurred, sued the Fulton County School District and school officials, asking the courts to force school officials to remove the suspension from her disciplinary record....

A federal appeals court on Monday gave NASCAR a huge victory in the racing organization's ongoing battle with AT&T. In a reversal of a lower court's decision, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that AT&T doesn't have the right to sue NASCAR over a sponsorship disagreement. The upshot: NASCAR is close to being able to require that AT&T logos be stripped from the No. 31 car, which is driven by Jeff Burton. That finding is a big switch from May, when Judge Marvin Shoob of U.S. District Court in Atlanta granted AT&T a preliminary injunction that...

The federal appeals court in Atlanta on Thursday declined to rule on the constitutionality of controversial Cobb County evolution disclaimers because the court said it did not have enough information to make the decision. The ruling was the latest twist in a nationally watched case that has raised questions of local authority over schools and whether Cobb's sticker -- which called evolution "a theory, not a fact" -- runs afoul of the First Amendment. The ruling means more arguments from lawyers and, perhaps, a new trial. -snip- The 11th Circuit noted that all parties in the case agree that some...

ADF filed friend-of-the-court brief in defense of textbook stickers which accurately stated that evolution is a theory ATLANTA — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit today vacated a lower court decision that declared Cobb County science textbook stickers which stated “evolution is a theory, not a fact” unconstitutional. The court was critical of the district court for issuing its ruling against the stickers despite holes in the evidentiary record in the case and remanded the case back to the district court for new proceedings. “No school should be in trouble for simply stating the facts. That’s what...

The fight over how public schools should teach the theory of evolution is usually expected to fall along familiar battle lines. Thus, at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today, lawyers for the liberal American Civil Liberties Union will argue that school board members from conservative Cobb County violated the Constitution when they ordered that stickers questioning evolution's validity be placed in high school biology books. But this case defies simple labels for Georgia State University law professor L. Lynn Hogue, who has led the conservative Southeastern Legal Foundation, worked for the disbarment of President Clinton and proposed a...

HAVANA (AP) - Cuba applauded a U.S. federal appeals court decision to throw out the convictions and sentences of five Cuban intelligence agents, saying Wednesday that it was a "happy day" on the island. A statement on the front page of the Communist Party daily Granma called Tuesday's ruling "ethical" and urged Cubans to be patient as the men, known locally as the "Five Heroes," prepare for a new trial. "The wait has been long ... and there's no doubt that it will continue to be so," the newspaper said. "It is not easy to overcome a wall of prejudice...

Republican judges killed Terri -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: May 9, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com There's a good reason congressional Republicans will not hold investigative hearings on the judicial homicide of Terri Schiavo. Republican judges killed her, just as surely as the Democrat judges did. This is the dirty little secret that would be uncovered if Republican lawmakers scratched beneath the surface of how and why the 11th Circuit ignored the will of the people and the U.S. Congress and the president of the United States in refusing a full review of her case as decided by Republican county Judge...

Their reasons may be corrupt. Their emotions may be out of control. Their motivations may be wrong. But insofar as the Democrats seek to block President Bush’s nomination of former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor to the federal courts, their actions should be applauded by every Christian who believes that evil should not be rewarded with good (Proverbs 17:15), that judges must fear God more than men (Exodus 18:21), and that Jesus Christ is Lord even over America’s judiciary (Psalm 2:10-12). Mr. Pryor is remembered for five defining events in his public career: 1. According to a sworn affidavit by...