Free Republic

The federal judge presiding over E. Jean Carroll's civil rape and defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump ruled Thursday he'll use an anonymous jury in the case, noting Trump's inflammatory rhetoric about the justice system. "It bears mention that Mr. Trump repeatedly has attacked courts, judges, various law enforcement officials and other public officials, and even individual jurors in other matters,” U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of New York said in his decision. He also said he'll refuse to allow jurors' names to become public, adding, "If jurors’ identities were disclosed, there would be a strong likelihood of unwanted...

The January 6th Committee has faced criticism about a lack of transparency, its highly partisan composition, and its failure to investigate certain elements of the unrest that happened at the January 6th ‘Stop the Steal’ rally. The committee, made up of Democrats and two Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump, had its deadline bumped up to release its final report as Republicans are set to take over the House in January and will likely disband the committee. As the committee prepares to release its report, which could result in them recommending Trump for criminal prosecution by the Department of...

In a nearly unanimous decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that judges cannot create "exceptions" to the United States Constitution. "As the Supreme Court has recognized, the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses is one of the bedrock constitutional protections afforded to criminal defendants," said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of "Battlefield America: The War on the American People." "At its core, the Sixth Amendment acts as a restraint on the government’s power to unfairly punish citizens in criminal cases, putting safeguards in place to prevent the accused from being indiscriminately stripped of...

The 6th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution sets out many rights for defendants during a criminal prosecution, including the right of the accused to confront their accusers. The relevant text of the Confrontation Clause of the 6th Amendment reads as follows: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to be confronted with the witnesses against him. The 14th Amendment has made the 6th Amendment's right to confrontation applicable to state court as well as federal court. The confrontation clause guarantees criminal defendants the opportunity to face the prosecution's witnesses in the case against them and dispute the...

The Sixth Amendment states, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed….” Those words stand a clearly as they did when the Bill of Rights was adopted, but these days, Americans who insist on a jury trial may find themselves punished for doing so. Here’s the problem. The American judicial system is so overwhelmed with cases that prosecutors don’t want to bother with trials. They would much rather strong-arm the defendant into a plea bargain, thus...

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards was sued Monday over his state's public defender system, which plaintiffs say violates the U.S. and Louisiana Constitutions by denying effective representation to poor people accused of crimes. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court describes defendants kept in jail for months before seeing a lawyer, public defenders who are so overworked they cannot provide adequate counsel and multiple instances in which people accused of minor crimes did not receive an attorney at all.

Watchdog Group Warns of Using Justice System to Appease Violent Protestors(Washington, DC) - Judicial Watch announced today it filed an amicus curiae brief with the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, arguing that forcing Baltimore Police Officer William G. Porter to testify against fellow officers before his retrial for manslaughter, assault, and other criminal charges over the police-custody death of Freddie Carlos Gray Jr., would have a significant, adverse chilling effect on his constitutional rights under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. Judicial Watch asserts the unusual push to force Office Porter to testify while facing charges is part of an unjust...

Fight on to stop government grab of money needed for legal defense It’s no secret that President Obama and his Democratic Party want to restrict the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. In addition, First Amendment religious-freedoms protections have been challenged by Obamacare. And freedom of speech? That’s just fine as long as it lines up with the “same-sex marriage” social agenda. Now, a case is posing a challenge to the Fifth Amendment’s property rights and due process protections along with the Sixth Amendment’s assurance of counsel for those accused of crimes. The U.S. Supreme Court now is...

Tommy Vaughn knows his clients may be distrustful when a court appoints him to handle their case. Without enough money to hire their own lawyer, defendants are often suspicious that court-appointed attorneys will provide a poor defense or just try to coerce a quick guilty plea. “I kind of assume that’s what they’re thinking when I first meet them,” said Vaughn, who has worked as a defense attorney in Texas for 2½ years. The issue of trust has long been part of a larger discussion about the quality of indigent defense in the U.S. Now, the Central Texas county where...

As early as today the Senate could vote to strip us our 6th Amendment rights! In a move that would make Joseph Stalin proud, Arizona Senator John McCain has joined Michigan’s Carl Levin in crafting a section of a bill designed to take away our rights to face an accuser and have a fair trial before being placed in prison. A section of S. 1867 The National Defense Authorization Act bill, written by McCain and Levin would in effect give the President arrest powers. “… authorize the Chief Executive to order our military personnel to forcibly- if necessary- take any...

The List" for 4/25/2009 Primetime Obama costing networks millionsIn a hearing before the House Foreign Appropriations Middle East Subcommittee, which must approve the allocation, key Democrats questioned the administration's giving money to a Palestinian Authority that would include Hamas  U.S. Department of State had Texas among list of 16 foreign countries visited by Secretary Hillary Clinton last month, according to Huntington PostA prominent Armenian organization in the U.S. accused Obama of failing to follow up on his election promise to recognize the genocide of ArmeniansObama and the Democrats in Congress are poised to trample Republican opposition to his health care...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to overrule long-standing law that stops police from initiating questions unless a defendant's lawyer is present, another stark example of the White House seeking to limit rather than expand rights. The administration's action — and several others — have disappointed civil rights and civil liberties groups that expected President Barack Obama to reverse the policies of his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, after the Democrat's call for change during the 2008 campaign. At the same time, the administration acknowledges that the decision "only occasionally prevents federal prosecutors from obtaining appropriate...

The Obama administration is urging the US Supreme Court to overturn a landmark decision that stops police from questioning suspects unless they have a lawyer present. The effort to sweep aside the 23-year-old Michigan vs Jackson ruling is one of several moves by the new government to have dismayed civil rights groups. President Barack Obama has already provoked controversy by backing the continued imprisonment without trial of enemy combatants in Afghanistan and by limiting the rights of prisoners to challenge evidence used to convict them. The Michigan vs Jackson ruling in 1986 established that, if a defendants have a lawyer...

The Obama administration has argued for the end of the Michigan v Jackson ruling that requires police to provide an attorney for a suspect once one has been requested. They argue that the benefits are “meagre,” as the Telegraph puts it: The effort to sweep aside the 23-year-old Michigan vs Jackson ruling is one of several moves by the new government to have dismayed civil rights groups. … The Michigan vs Jackson ruling in 1986 established that, if a defendants have a lawyer or have asked for one to be present, police may not interview them until the lawyer is...

The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to overrule the 1986 Michigan v. Jackson decision in which the Supreme Court said that police may not initiate questioning of a defendant who has a lawyer or has asked for one unless the attorney is present. I can't believe the left isn't coming unglued on this one, or the ACLU for that matter. I'm betting that they will. The left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center has weighed in: Stephen Bright, a lawyer who works with poor defendants at the Southern Centre for Human Rights in Atlanta, described the administration's position as "disappointing...

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."

In addition to all the other reasons we've talked about this week for opposing confirmation of Eric Holder as attorney general, The Heritage Foundation alerts us to his "Sixth Amendment Problem." Citing an article by Harvey Silvergate in The National Law Journal, we learn: "...Holder strongly suggested that, when deciding whether to indict a corporation — and indictment can be a death sentence for companies in certain businesses — they consider whether the company has "cooperated" in the investigation. "Cooperation" was partially defined by whether the corporation agreed to waive the legally protected attorney-client and work-product privileges...including corporate counsel's discussions...

Injustice in the United States November 30, 2006 by John J. Abele On August 28, 2005, Miguel Padilla, of Gallitzin, PA, once again avoided being officially sentenced to death. This time the delay was caused by the Mexican government stepping into the case on his behalf. Is anyone sure that Mexico has a government today? The old regime is due to be replaced at midnight tonight, but by whom? As of yesterday legislators were fighting and rolling on the floor, disputing just who the incoming president will be. The Mexican government obviously considers him a citizen of Mexico. Let's go...

The Constitution guarantees a criminal defendant may confront his accusers, and that right means prosecutors can't use a wife's taped statement to police to try to undermine her husband at trial, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. The high court sided with a man convicted of assaulting an acquaintance he had accused of trying to rape his wife. Sylvia Crawford did not testify at Michael Crawford's trial, but prosecutors played a tape they claimed showed her story did not match his.Michael Crawford's lawyers had no opportunity to cross-examine Sylvia Crawford about the tape, a unanimous Supreme Court said."That alone is sufficient...

<p>NEW YORK (CNN) --A federal judge Tuesday ordered the government to allow lawyers to meet with alleged "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla, an American citizen accused of being an al Qaeda operative who plotted to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" inside the United States.</p>