Free Republic

A federal appeals court upheld the constitutionality of Ohio’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood Tuesday. The 2016 law bars state funding to any healthcare organization that performs or promotes abortions. Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, had sued over the law claiming that it violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 11-6 Tuesday to overturn a previous decision by a three-judge panel in the same appeals court that said the law was unconstitutional. During his time as the state’s attorney general last year, now-Gov. Mike DeWine (R) requested that the case...

Your emails should be safe from warrantless search, says 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, again. From an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) press release today: In a landmark decision issued today in the criminal appeal of U.S. v. Warshak, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers.... EFF filed a similar amicus brief with the 6th Circuit in 2006 in a civil suit brought by criminal defendant Warshak against the government for its warrantless seizure of his emails. There, the...

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans Wednesday singled out Michigan's two senators for their "abuse" of the so-called "blue-slip" policy that allows senators from a nominee's home state to block nominations if they object to the candidates. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow have negatively filled out blue slips, the blue-colored papers on which senators submit their approvals or denials of nominees. The negative blue slip means the Senate Judiciary Committee can't hold a hearing on President Bush's judicial choices for the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "The last time I looked at the Constitution, the president appoints nominees. If the...