Free Republic

A federal judge in Maryland on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump lacked the authority to fire three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and ordered their reinstatement — teeing up another high-stakes court clash centered on Trump's ability as commander-in-chief to remove or otherwise control the members of independent agencies. U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox, a Biden appointee, sided with the three ousted members of the board — Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr. — in ruling that their firings were unlawful and ordered all three members to be reinstated to their posts. In...

A U.S. district judge has ruled that the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) exceeded its authority when it inserted abortion accommodations into the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) — and must now remove them. KEY TAKEAWAYS: A U.S. District judge said changes made to the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act by the Biden administration were ‘unlawful’ and must be removed. The lawsuit was brought by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which had originally supported the Act as written and passed in 2023. The USCCB argued that if Congress had intended to include abortion in the PWFA in 2023,...

A federal judge rejected Cooper Union's request to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Jewish students that alleged the New York college violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to protect them from anti-Semitic attacks.Judge John Cronan also admonished Cooper Union for arguing that the Jewish students should have hidden when anti-Semitic agitators cornered them in the school library...In October 2023, anti-Israel protesters... banged on the locked doors and the large floor-to-ceiling windows, demanding to be let in.In response, 10 Jewish students filed suit against Cooper Union in April 2024, alleging that the college failed to protect them...

In 2018, Joseph Srour applied for a license to possess rifles and shotguns at his home in New York City. He was denied. In 2019, he applied for a license to possess handguns in his home. He was denied. The denials involved the application of the issuing authorities’ subjective judgment on Srour’s moral character and the subjective judgment of the issuing authorities’ determination of “good cause.” Joseph Srour appealed the decision. After the Bruen decision by the Supreme Court, he amended his appeal to a direct (facial) challenge of the constitutionality of New York City law. The Case is known...

A federal judge compared Waylon Bailey’s Facebook jest to "falsely shouting fire in a theatre."Back in March 2020, a dozen or so sheriff's deputies wearing bullet-proof vests descended upon Waylon Bailey's home in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, with their guns drawn, ordered him onto his knees with his hands on his head, and arrested him for a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The SWAT-style raid was provoked by a Facebook post in which Bailey had made a zombie-themed joke about COVID-19. Although a federal appeals court recently ruled that Bailey could pursue civil rights claims based on...