Free Republic

The Supreme Court will consider allowing the Trump administration to enforce rules that allow more employers to deny insurance coverage for contraceptives to women. The justices agreed Friday to yet another case stemming from President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, this time about cost-free birth control. The high court will review an appeals court ruling that blocked the Trump administration rules because it did not follow proper procedures. The new policy on contraception, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, would allow more categories of employers, including publicly traded companies, to opt out of providing no-cost birth control...

President Trump’s nominations to the federal courts have flipped three circuits making them majority Republican-appointed, lowered the age of GOP-appointed judges by 14 years, and reshaped the judiciary for decades to come, according to a series of new reports. When Trump took office in January 2017, only four of the 13 U.S. appeals courts had a majority of Republican-appointed judges. Today, seven of the 13 appeals courts do. This year alone, the Second, Third and 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have flipped from majority Democratic-nominated to majority Republican-nominated, according to Law.com. All total, 187 Trump-appointed federal judges have been...

The Supreme Court agreed Dec. 6 to hear a challenge to a Delaware law invalidated by a lower federal court that regulates the partisan makeup of that state’s courts. The Supreme Court granted a petition brought by Gov. John C. Carney, a Democrat who has held the post since January 2017. Carney is appealing a loss at the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, which struck down the state law on April 10. Current law provides that no more than 50 percent of the judges on the Supreme Court, Superior Court, “or those courts together with the Court of Chancery, may...

The U.S. Senate voted by a 54-45 margin on Tuesday to confirm Paul Matey to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. With Matey’s confirmation, the Third Circuit shifts to a 7-6 majority of Republican appointees, making it the first court of appeals in the nation to see its composition switch under Trump, who has been clear on his goal to remake the federal judiciary with conservative judges. Trump previously appointed Stephanos Bibas and David Porter to the 14-member court of appeals. On Monday, after a vote to close debate on the Matey nomination was split on party...

A federal appeals court upheld New Jersey’s magazine-capacity-limit laws, arguing 2-1 that three 10-round magazines are just as good as two 15-rounders. They said that a magazine-capacity limit does not present a burden to self-defense. New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal favored the decision to limit gun owners to 10-round magazines. (Photo: Grewal) Previously New Jersey residents had a magazine-capacity limit of 15 rounds, due to a law passed in 1990. The new law restricts gun owners to 10 rounds and they must modify, destroy or register any magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds. The law makes an...

Split 3rd Circuit Upholds NJ's Ban on Large-Capacity Gun Magazines The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has rejected a challenge to New Jersey’s ban on firearm magazines holding more than 10 rounds. The appeals court, by a 2-1 margin, said the law limiting high-capacity magazines does not violate the Second Amendment, the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause or the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The court affirmed an order from the U.S. District Court that denied challengers’ motion to preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the law. Judges Joseph Greenaway Jr. and Patty Shwartz ruled to affirm the lower court....

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- A threatening letter was sent to the sister of presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday. Judge Maryanne Trump Barry sits on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, which is based in Center City. The FBI Philadelphia branch issued the following statement: "The FBI is aware of the incident and is working closely with the United States Secret Service and U.S. Marshals Service. As it is an ongoing matter, no further details are available at this time."

---Why a Texas Appellate Court Seriously Erred In Concluding that Texas Child Protective Services Should Not Have Rescued All of the Children at the FLDS CompoundBy MARCI HAMILTON ---- Thursday, May 29, 2008 Last week, the Third Court of Appeals in Austin, Texas, issued a very significant – and very seriously mistaken – ruling, In re Sara Steed et al.The case involved 38 women from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), who challenged the state’s removal of all the children from their FLDS compound in Eldorado, Texas when authorities entered on the basis of reports...

Briefing Book Casts Alito As Mainstream By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent 1 hour, 46 minutes ago WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's opinions on abortion, discrimination and other contentious issues are the work of a mainstream jurist, not the ideologue depicted by critics, the White House argues in a voluminous briefing book meant for Republican senators. ADVERTISEMENT Alito's dissent in a 1991 abortion ruling showed "concern for the safety of women," the material says. By approving a requirement for spousal notification, he "reflected the position advanced by the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania." A 1996 dissent in a sex...

Judges who have served with Samuel Alito say he's unquestionably a conservative who would push the Supreme Court to the right, likely favoring new abortion restrictions that retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor would not. Five current or former judges on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals interviewed by The Associated Press described Alito as thoughtful, intelligent and fair. They said he has great respect for precedent-setting decisions and none of them offered that he would be likely to vote to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. O'Connor, whom Alito was tapped to replace by President...

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT No. 03-3680 Adams v. Local 115   To: Clerk Appellants' Motion Requesting That the Members of this Court Recuse Themselves from This MatterAppellees' Responses     The foregoing Motion is under consideration. The parties will be advised through the Court's normal procedures when the appeal is assigned to a merits panel for disposition. No further order or other notification will be provided in regard to the disposition of the motion. Under the circumstances, listing of the appeal for disposition may take a significant amount of additional time from this date.     For...

Martini gets OK as federal judge MITCHEL MADDUX Former Rep. Bill Martini has been confirmed as a New Jersey federal judge by the U.S. Senate. Martini, 55, a Republican who lives in Clifton and practices law in Newark, is a former federal prosecutor who also has served as a Passaic County freeholder. A member of a prominent Passaic County family long involved in politics, he serves as a commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Martini will have to resign from the agency, and Governor McGreevey will name his replacement on the 12-person board. Martini said...

A federal appeals court's ruling that a child may not give pencils bearing the inscription "Jesus [loves] the little children" to his classmates is "yet one more ludicrous example of the federal courts' attempt to help governments at every level to enforce a rigidly secular bias on our public spaces," said Southern Baptist church-state specialist Richard Land. The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a federal judge's decision that a New Jersey school system acted constitutionally in prohibiting a 4-year-old student from distributing the pencils at a spring class party. A three-judge panel of the Third Circuit unanimously...

Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals finds that 4-year-old had no right to give classmates pencils that said "Jesus loves the little children." A federal appeals court has forbidden children as young as 4 to give gifts bearing religious messages like "Jesus loves the little children" to their classmates during classroom activities.A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Pennsylvania and New Jersey, found late last month that such gifts represent "student advocacy," according to its decision in a case brought by the parents of a 9-year-old boy against the Egg Harbor Township (N.J.) Board...

<p>Kindergartners and first-graders may not distribute to their classmates gifts that bear a religious message, according to a ruling by a federal appeals court.</p> <p>The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in favor of a New Jersey elementary school in forbidding a boy from giving out pencils with the message "Jesus loves the little children" with a heart symbol substituted for the word love.</p>

Kindergartener's Suspension Appealed To Supreme Court Playground Gunplay Case Goes To High Court POSTED: 8:35 a.m. EDT September 19, 2003 SAYREVILLE, N.J. -- Lawyers representing the family of a boy suspended from kindergarten after a playground game involving make-believe guns have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case. The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit group focused on First Amendment and religious freedom cases, announced the appeal on Thursday. According to The Rutherford Institute, four kindergarten boys at Wilson Elementary School were playing cops and robbers during recess in March 2000, using their fingers as guns. The boy represented by...