Free Republic

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an order that will allow Indiana to enforce a law mandating the burial or cremation of fetal remains following an abortion. The order marks the first case under the more conservative Supreme Court makeup to challenge the parameters of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The Indiana case was closely watched since the Supreme Court began discussing it in January. The justices met about it more than a dozen times. The order by the Supreme Court overturns an appeals court decision from the 7th Circuit that held Indiana’s stated interest...

Organized labor, already reeling from a potentially major financial hit thanks to a Supreme Court ruling last week that could result in millions of public-sector workers cutting off funding, could be subject to another blow from the justices: class-action suits from those workers seeking to get paid back from the unions. In a little-noticed action, the Supreme Court invalidated a ruling last week by the 7th Circuit Court denying class-action certification in a case called Riffey v. Rauner. The case involved nonunion state-subsidized Illinois home healthcare workers seeking to be repaid the funds that for years they were forced to...

The Senate confirmed two more of President Trump’s judicial nominees to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday. In a 90-0 vote, Michael Scudder, a Chicago-based lawyer, was cleared and Amy St. Eve, a judge for the Northern District of Illinois, was confirmed by a 91-0 vote. The Senate plans to vote on the confirmation of two other judicial nominees, one for the 6th and one for the 10th circuit, on Tuesday in a push by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, to reshape the federal bench. If the Senate also confirms Mr. Trump’s two nominees on...

A federal appeals court Tuesday issued a decision that could have far-reaching implications for transgender students, siding with a transgender boy whose Wisconsin school district had sought to bar him from the boys’ bathroom to protect the privacy of other students. High school senior Ash Whitaker sued Kenosha Unified School District No. 1 last summer, arguing that its bathroom policy violated his civil rights. In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction that temporarily stops the district from enforcing that policy while the case is tried.

A federal appeals court in Chicago on Tuesday ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act also protects LGBT employees from workplace discrimination, the first time a federal appellate court has come to that conclusion. The decision by the full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago comes just three weeks after a three-judge panel in Atlanta ruled the opposite, saying employers aren’t prohibited from discriminating against employees based on sexual orientation. It also comes as President Donald Trump’s administration has begun setting its own policies on LGBT rights. Late in January, the White House declared Trump would enforce an...

Last month, U.S. District Court Judge James Peterson struck down what he deemed was a much too strict voter ID law in Wisconsin and suggested that proponents of the law were overly paranoid about voter fraud. As a result the judge's ruling, voters would not have to provide a valid form of identification at their polling stations and residency requirements would be relaxed. On Wednesday, however, a U.S. appeals court issued a stay in the case, allowing the "strict" practices to remain in place. A Justice Department statement said that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit issued...

The 7th Circuit federal court of appeals will hear a case against a local ban on some common rifles, handguns, shotguns, and magazines.  The city of Highland Park, notorious for its anti-second amendment laws, passed an ordinance that requires residents to turn in, modify or remove the banned items from the city.   Ordinance 136(pdf) deals with "Assault Weapons".  The ordinance includes very broad boilerplate language.   Some claim that the ordinance was lifted from the City of Chicago. The definitions are broad and cover most semi-automatic rifles, and a fair number of pistols and shotguns.   Highland Park has a...

The short version is that the targets initially succeeded at the federal trial court level in obtaining an injunction shutting down the investigation (which already was on hold because of a state court judge’s ruling), and allowing the civil damages lawsuit against the prosecutors/investigators to go forward in federal court. The Court of Appeals reversed, finding that there was no ground for the federal courts to intervene in a state investigation, particularly where a state judge already had effectively shut it down (which is on appeal in the state court system). Here are the grounds stated in the Petition to...

Milwaukee police who forced their way into a gun rights advocate's home without a warrant, took her for an emergency mental evaluation and seized her gun were justified under the circumstances and protected from her civil rights claims, a federal appeals court has ruled. "The intrusions upon Sutterfield's privacy were profound," Judge Ilana Rovner wrote for three-judge panel. "At the core of the privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment is the right to be let alone in one's home." But the court also found, that on the other hand, "There is no suggestion that (police) acted for any reason other...

Chicago, Ill., Nov 15, 2013 / 04:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Obama administration’s defense of the HHS mandate is “unsound and extraordinary” for contending that business owners cannot have religious freedom protections. “The government’s argument is premised on a far-too-narrow view of religious freedom: Religious exercise is protected in the home and the house of worship but not beyond,” the court’s Nov. 12 decision in Grote Industries v. Sebelius said. “Religious people do not practice their faith in that compartmentalized way; free-exercise rights are not so circumscribed.” Compelling businesses owners and...

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has told Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan for the last time that she MUST honor the Constitution of the United States by doing away with her state’s ban on the concealed carry of firearms. It was back in December of last year that a 3 judge panel of the Court found the Illinois law banning concealed carry to be unconstitutional. “The Supreme Court has decided that the [2nd] amendment confers a right to bear arms for self-defense, which is as important outside the home as inside,” wrote 7th Circuit Judge Richard Posner, paraphrasing the...

In case anyone hasn't heard, the 7th circuit denied Lisa Madigans request to have the ban on concealed carry ruled unconstitutional. Thus they are now under the gun to pass a conceal carry law by June 9, 2013. The judge who wrote the dissenting opinion basically gave them a layout on how to pass a very bad bill in his opinion that would not infringe the second amendment. Hogwash, but now Michael Madigan is going to try to railroad a bill through ala NY style. Only difference is we have a few days to react where they had none. They'll...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Indiana stepped between women and their physicians when it enacted a law that blocked Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood just because the organization provides abortions, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The ruling by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago effectively upheld decisions by a district judge and a Medicaid review panel that found the 2011 law denied patients the right to choose their own health care provider.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's ruling striking down a Wisconsin law banning taxpayer-funded hormone therapy for transgender inmates. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision came Friday in a case brought by a group of male inmates who identify as female.

www.catholicnewsagency.com Appeals court rejects lawsuit against National Day of Prayer By Kevin J. Jones NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of Rep. Gabby Giffords, gives the closing prayer at the National Prayer Breakfast this past February. Washington D.C., Apr 16, 2011 / 07:23 am (CNA).- A federal court has rejected of a lawsuit that sought to remove President Barack Obama’s right to proclaim the National Day of Prayer.Kevin Theriot, senior counsel at the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund legal group, praised the decision.“Public officials should be able to participate in public prayer activities just as America’s founders did.”A three-judge panel...

A federal appeals court Thursday threw out a ruling that would have prohibited the president from declaring a National Day of Prayer, in a decision that cheered social conservatives and occasioned much wailing and gnashing of teeth by groups advocating a strict separation of church and state. The Freedom From Religion Foundation announced that it would seek a rehearing by the full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a three-judge panel ruled against its challenge to the 1952 law, which instructs the president to issue a proclamation encouraging citizens to pray. The Chicago-based court ruled that the organization lacked...

Federal Bench: Yet another judicial nominee seeks to impose the "empathy" standard on the courts. He thinks judges should base rulings on a plaintiff's status, legislate from the bench and amend the Constitution. Indiana federal judge David Hamilton stands poised to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to assume a seat on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals serving Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. He's a former fundraiser for Acorn and a former leader of the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He is also another in a series of activist judges who believe the U.S. Constitution is not...

President Obama thinks he has thrown the pro-life movement a curve ball by nominating a politically-correct relatively unknown minor judge as a candidate for the Supreme Court. Putting the name of Sonia Sotomayor forward for this office is really the equivalent of an affirmative action plan for the highest court of our land, and it is just not what we need for our judicial system. As a Hispanic female judge, she apparently has the credentials suited to Obama's highly politicized view of the Constitution, but Sotomayor is far from the most qualified person for the office. More importantly, she is...

On Wednesday, June 3, the National Rifle Association filed a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of NRA v. Chicago. The NRA strongly disagrees with yesterday's decision issued by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, holding that the Second Amendment does not apply to state and local governments

The nomination of Judge David Hamilton by President Obama to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals should concern all Americans. His nomination raises several issues that should run up the red flag for any American who loves his country and believes in constitutional government. The first problem with Hamilton is that when he was appointed in 1994 by then-President Clinton, the American Bar Association rated him as unqualified. Judge Hamilton used to be a fund-raiser for ACORN, an acronym and an organization that have become synonymous with voter fraud. Judge Hamilton served on the board of the ACLU, a group...