Free Republic

The ruling is a blow to Trump’s deportation efforts and permanently bars removals under the Alien Enemies Act in South Texas.A Trump-appointed federal judge ruled Thursday that the president exceeded his authority by invoking the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport Venezuelan migrants, dealing a blow to the administration’s deportation efforts and permanently barring such removals in South Texas. In a 36-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. in Brownsville, Texas, rejected Trump’s declarations that the United States was being invaded by a Venezuelan gang to justify using the act to deport migrants without a hearing. He said the...

In a follow-up opinion, Rodriguez Jr. declared: "For these reasons, the Court concludes that the President's invocation of the AEA through the Proclamation exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful. Respondents [the Administration] do not possess the lawful authority under the AEA, and based on the Proclamation, to detain Venezuelan aliens, transfer them within the United States, or remove them from the country." Rodriguez Jr. issued two opinions and orders on Thursday in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Texas, responding to a petition by individuals to allow them to certify as a class...

Two federal judges on Wednesday blocked the removal of Venezuelan nationals and alleged TdA gang members facing deportation under the Alien Enemies Act after the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case. US District Judge for the Southern District of Texas, Fernando Rodriguez, Jr., a Trump appointee, issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) through April 23 or until he issues an order. “Respondents are enjoined from transferring, relocating, or removing J.A.V., J.G.G., W.G.H., or any other person that Respondents claim are subject to removal under the Proclamation, from the El Valle Detention Center; and Respondents are enjoined from...

Four Missouri hunters who stepped diagonally from one parcel of federal land in Wyoming to another did not illegally trespass on the airspace of adjacent private property, a federal appeals court has ruled. The decision, issued by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver, firmly protects public access to millions of acres of land in the court’s six-state jurisdiction and substantially strengthens the rights of “corner-crossers” throughout the West. The case is rooted in a quirk of the region, where vast swaths of terrain have been divided since the 19th century...

A federal judge appointed by Barack Obama ruled that Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes must release records pertaining to over 1.2 million “inactive” voters on Arizona’s voter rolls. The decision comes amid concerns that Arizona’s voter rolls may contain numerous inactive or ineligible registrations, that would impact the accuracy of the state’s voter database. Judge Logan served 26 years in the Marine Corps and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal while stationed in Iraq. Barack Obama nominated Judge Logan to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Arizona in 2013. On Saturday, Judge Steven...

A Catholic school in North Carolina was within its legal rights to dismiss a substitute teacher because he was in a same-sex marriage, a federal appeals court ruled.A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that Charlotte Catholic High School could fire Lonnie Billard for marrying a man.Circuit Judge Pamela Harris, an Obama appointee, authored the majority opinion, concluding that the Catholic school was protected by the "ministerial exception," noting that Billard's employment involved an inherently religious element."We conclude that the school entrusted Billard with 'vital religious duties,' making him a 'messenger' of its...

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa. Has been ordered to give federal prosecutors more than 1,600 text messages, emails, and other communications related to the investigation of Donald Trump’s alleged alleged attempt to alter the results of the 2020 election. On Tuesday, Politico reported that Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled most of Perry’s messages could not be withheld from prosecutors due to protections afforded to members of Congress. Boasberg concluded that the 1,659 communications were not subject to the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause. The clause prohibits prosecutors and courts from looking into official congressional business. The court documents allege...

Democrat attorneys general seek to force Catholic schools to hire homosexual teachersThe lawyers' amicus brief argues that Catholic high schools do not have a right to hire and fire people in accordance with Church teaching.CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (LifeSiteNews) — Eighteen Democrat attorneys general have joined in an amicus brief against a Catholic high school who fired a substitute teacher in a homosexual “marriage.” The brief, filed last week, argued that the Catholic high school does not have a right to not hire individuals that live a lifestyle incongruent with Catholicism. A federal court ruled in September 2021 against the high...

On November 15, 2022, the United States Attorney in the Western District of Texas, Ashley C. Hoff, filed a Notice of Appeal to the United States District Court fro the Western District of Texas, Pecos Division in the case of USA v. Perez-Gallan. Previously, on November 10, 2022, Judge David Counts had issued a Memorandum Opinion dismissing the indictment to Litsson Antonio Perez-Gallan as invalid because it was unconstitutional under the United States Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association (NYSR&PA) v. Bruen decision, which restored the Second Amendment as a full-fledged member of the Bill...

Federal District Judge David Counts in the Western District of Texas has ruled the controversial federal law banning gun possession by a person who has been served with a restraining order for domestic violence is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. The statute in question is 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8). This statute makes it a crime to possess a firearm if the person is subject to a court issued restraining order about domestic violence. The maximum term of imprisonment for violation of the statue is up to 10 years in prison. The actual wording of 18 U.S.C. §922(g)(8) is this:(g) It...

Obama Judge John Tuchi in Arizona ruled on Wednesday afternoon, November 23, 2022, the day before Thanksgiving, that Maricopa County was justified in discriminating against TGP reporter Jordan Conradson and preventing him access to the County’s press room after another corrupt election disaster in the county. Judge Tuchi who was appointed by Barack Obama to the District Court in Arizona waited until Wednesday afternoon, the day before Thanksgiving, to announce his ruling on the case between The Gateway Pundit and Maricopa County in Arizona.

A federal law prohibiting people under felony indictment from buying firearms is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Texas has concluded, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly expanded gun rights.

PHOENIX — Maricopa County’s supervisors are asking a judge to impose financial sanctions on the state’s two top election deniers, Republicans Kari Lake and Mark Finchem.Lake, who is running for governor, and Finchem, the GOP nominee for secretary of state, filed a lawsuit in April seeking to ban the use of ballot counting machines.It is full of claims that are demonstrably false, contends an attorney for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Emily Crager.Moreover, she told U.S. District Court Judge John Tuchi that “any reasonable investigation would have revealed’’ as much. That means Lake and Finchem violated court rules barring...

A federal judge on Friday tossed Trump’s lawsuit seeking to block New York Attorney General Letitia James’ witch hunt investigation into the former president’s business practices. U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes for upstate New York, an Obama appointee, issued the ruling just one day after a state appeals court ruled Trump must testify under oath. “While the New York proceeding has been ongoing since August 2020, Plaintiffs have submitted no evidence that the subpoena enforcement proceeding has been conducted in such a way as to constitute harassment,” Sannes wrote in a 43-page decision. Trump’s lawyers said they will immediately appeal...

Nursing Students With Religious Objections To Vaccine Mandate Victorious In Federal Court Against MCCCD: A federal judge in Phoenix issued a preliminary injunction Friday against the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) after finding that two nursing students deserve to graduate this year even if they need an accommodation due to their religious objection to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. “Defendant shall make available to Plaintiffs a suitable accommodation that will allow Plaintiffs to satisfy the clinical components of their coursework and complete their academic programs as scheduled in December 2021,” U.S. District Judge Steven P. Logan wrote in his order...

WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) asked a judge on Monday to dismiss the U.S. government's revised antitrust case that seeks to force the social media giant to sell Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook said in a court filing that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had failed to provide a "plausible factual basis for branding Facebook an unlawful monopolist." The company added it appears the FTC "had no basis for its naked allegation that Facebook has or had a monopoly." The social media giant asked that the lawsuit be dismissed with prejudice, which would make it harder for the...

I’m the founder of MeWe, the ad-free social network with data privacy and no content amplification or newsfeed manipulation. MeWe competes directly with Facebook. On June 27, 2019, I wrote an op-ed in this newspaper headlined “I Compete With Facebook, and It’s No Monopoly.” I’ve changed my mind. MeWe continues to succeed, albeit on a modest scale. Two years ago the platform had five million users and no revenue. Today it has nearly 20 million users and is breaking even with millions of dollars in revenue. Yet despite MeWe’s growth, Facebook’s troubling actions over the last two years have caused...

The Diocese of Charlotte has said the law and religious freedom precedent are on its side, despite a federal judge’s ruling that a Catholic high school illegally discriminated when it said it would no longer hire a substitute teacher who announced that he would contract a same-sex marriage. The ruling both applies a new Supreme Court decision that defines sex discrimination to include sexual orientation, and holds that other religious freedom rulings do not apply. “We respectfully disagree with the district court’s decision and are considering next steps,” the Charlotte diocese said Sept. 4. “The First Amendment, federal law, and...

The college will keep fighting a Biden administration rule that 'requires private religious colleges to place biological males into female dormitories and assign them as females’ roommates.'May 24, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – A federal district court has rejected the Missouri-based College of the Ozarks’ request to temporarily block the Biden administration from imposing a slate of new requirements on the Christian school to recognize and accommodate the “gender identity” of gender-dysphoric students. One of President Joe Biden’s earliest acts was signing an executive order declaring the “policy of my Administration to prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity...

One of Joe Biden’s first orders of business was to make sure demented, perverted men could be allowed to share shower spaces with women. Biden signed an executive order in January titled, “Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” "Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.” Biden’s order said. One Christian college in Missouri filed a lawsuit against Joe Biden claiming the overreach was victimizing women, girls and people of faith. The College of...