Free Republic

Minnesota beaches may never be the same, following a unanimous state Supreme Court ruling this week overturning a woman’s indecent exposure misdemeanor conviction on the grounds that men, transgender individuals and breast cancer survivors are not held to the same standard. “Criminalizing the exposure of female — but not male — breasts does not provide Minnesotans with adequate notice as to the conduct the indecent exposure statute prohibits,” Associate Justice Sarah Hennesy wrote of the court’s decision. “Because a binary approach to breasts fails to recognize the more nuanced physical realities of human bodies, whether they are intersex, transgender, nonbinary,...

An outrageous travesty of justice occurred in Missouri recently that could cause millions of Americans to lose faith in the criminal justice system. As KSHB reported on Wednesday, a radical judge ordered a deranged leftist credibly accused in federal court of firebombing two Tesla Cybertrucks and charging stations in Kansas City to be released from prison back on April 24. United States Magistrate Judge Jessica Hedges ruled that it was wrong to hold 19-year-old Owen McIntire behind bars before trial for his alleged crimes after agreeing with the defense’s desperate pleas for mercy. FOX4 obtained court documents that revealed the...

A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from terminating funding for legal counsel for unaccompanied migrant minors. Appointed by former President Joe Biden, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order on Tuesday that will stop the Trump administration from ending the funding while the merits of the underlying case play out. In her Tuesday order, Martínez-Olguín said that advocates had raised legitimate questions about whether the administration violated the 2008 law, warranting a return to the status quo while the case continues. The Trump administration on March 21 terminated a contract...

The 8-year-long federal lawsuit seeking to ban voting systems in the State of Georgia that store a voter’s intent on a QR code rather than human-verifiable text has ended today. Judge Amy Totenberg issued her ruling over a year after the trial concluded, determining that “the Court lacks jurisdiction to consider the merits of Plaintiffs’ claims.” The Gateway Pundit covered this trial from Day 1 in court, witnessing several egregious manipulations of the voting system demonstrated live and on the record in the courtroom. University of Michigan computer science professor Dr. J. Alex Halderman successfully hacked the Dominion ICX system...

A federal judge in Maryland temporarily blocked key portions of President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the federal government and corporate America. Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend. U.S. District Judge Adam B. Abelson granted a preliminary injunction on Friday that bars portions of Trump’s orders to cancel federal contracts with DEI components and require government contractors to certify that they do not engage in DEI practices that violate antidiscrimination laws. The order also prohibits enforcement against publicly traded companies and large universities with...

A federal judge appears poised to block the Trump administration if the Department of Defense attempts to place limitations on or ban transgender service members. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes is still hearing arguments Tuesday in the case but signaled deep skepticism with the claim that transgender service members lessen the military’s lethality or readiness. “You and I both agree that the greatest fighting force that world history has ever seen is not going to be impacted in any way by less than 1% of the soldiers using a different pronoun than others might want to call them. Would you...

federal judge on Tuesday reinstated Cathy Harris, the Democrat chairwoman of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). “The mission of the MSPB is to “Protect the Merit System Principles and promote an effective Federal workforce free of Prohibited Personnel Practices.”” the agency’s website says. Cathy Harris was appointed to the MSPB in 2021 and her term was set to expire on March 1, 2028, but Trump fired her earlier this month. Judge Rudolph Contreras, an Obama appointee with a history of anti-Trump bias, said Trump’s decision to fire Cathy Harris, a member of an agency in the executive branch, exceeded...

An Ohio judge has blocked a common sense law that stopped Planned Parenthood from dumping the bodies of aborted babies in landfills. The Unborn Child Dignity Act was first introduced in 2016, following an investigation by then Attorney General Mike DeWine into Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facility practices in Ohio. The investigation found that Planned Parenthood’s Ohio locations had been dumping the bodies of aborted babies in landfill Because the Ohio Revised Code did not define “humane” disposal, the state of Ohio was unable to take legal action. In 2020, DeWine, as Ohio’s governor, signed into law a new pro-life...

The wife of a federal judge who blocked President Donald Trump’s decision to shutter government websites that promoted gender ideology founded an organization that received funds from the United States Agency for International Development, an agency that the administration is currently targeting. U.S. District Judge John Bates issued a decision on Tuesday ordering federal health agencies to restore pages about transgenderism they had pulled after a Trump executive order about “gender ideology extremism.” ... “No backend remedy could ameliorate the inability to provide all required care during an appointment time to a patient who cannot return in the future,” Bates...

Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 @julie_kelly2 Hearing about to get underway in Judge Tanya Chutkan's courtroom related to blue state lawsuit against Elon Musk/DOGE seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) prohibiting Musk from: (1) Accessing or continuing to access any data systems and the information and code contained within those systems, including but not limited to systems containing sensitive or confidential agency and personnel data at the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Commerce, or any components...

The problem with judge-shopping to push your case through, there’s always the chance that the judges you are counting on to push your agenda have their own skin in the game. That’s the case with a judge who has offered very dubious rulings on whether Trump can suspend his USAID money. We’ve got a thread from America First Legal making the case online that Judge McConnell, the Rhode Island judge who put an end to Trump’s spending freezes, ought never to have heard that case in the first place. The reason? He is *Personally* benefitting financially from his own ruling....

In a horrible ruling late Friday night, a Missouri judge has ruled that abortion centers can reopen in Missouri and resume killing babies in abortions. A Jackson County judge struck down licensing requirements for clinics that have stood in the way of abortion businesses reopening after the state barely approved Amendment 3, the ballot measure allowing abortions and reversing the state’s law protecting babies. Judge Jerri Zhang struck down modest abortion limits that protect women’s health, including pre-abortion exams, waiting periods, hospital admitting privileges for abortionist so women can receive emergency medical care after a botched abortion. In a statement...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has ordered President Donald Trump's administration to temporarily lift a funding freeze that has shut down U.S. humanitarian aid and development work around the world, and he has set a five-day deadline for the administration to prove it's complying. The judge's ruling late Thursday cited the financial devastation that the near-overnight cutoff of payments has caused suppliers and nonprofits that carry out much of U.S. aid overseas. The ruling was the first to challenge the Republican administration's funding freeze. It comes amid a growing number of lawsuits by government employees' groups, aid groups and...

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A New Orleans judge has made the unusual decision to allow a woman accused of murdering a man on Bourbon Street last summer to await trial at home in Mississippi, court records show. Orleans Parish Criminal District Judge Nandi Campbell on Dec. 18 granted permission for accused killer Mia Lindsey to leave Louisiana and stay on “24/7 home incarceration” at her residence in Columbia, Miss., while awaiting trial in New Orleans, records show. The judge stipulated that Lindsey must return to her New Orleans courtroom for a Jan. 22 hearing on motions in her case, and...

A violent teen with an extensive criminal history has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a 14-year-old boy, tying him to a tree, and disembowling him at a park in Everett, WA, a city located just north of Seattle. The suspect was released from custody by a Seattle judge just two weeks prior to the alleged offense despite the prosecutor's objections. Millorz Canales, 17, of Snohomish County, has been charged with first-degree assault, first-degree kidnapping, and robbery. He has been accused of luring the victim to Lions Park on December 17, repeatedly stabbing him, cutting out his organs, and leaving the...

A ballot initiative to expand abortion in Arizona will not use the phrase “unborn human being” after a judge rejected the language put forth by Republican lawmakers, deeming it too partisan and emotional. The case is now headed to the state Supreme Court. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Whitten asked that the initiative, which seeks to expand abortion access from 15 weeks to 24 weeks, use more “neutral” language. Children born as young as 21 weeks have survived. Earlier this year, Arizonans for Access — a coalition of pro-abortion groups, including the ACLU of Arizona and Planned Parenthood of...

Verdicts were handed down today in the federal trial of five pro-life activists – Lauren Handy, Will Goodman, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, and Herb Geraghty – who were charged with conspiracy against rights and FACE Act violations. The jury found all of the defendants guilty of both charges. Read all the details here. The defendants were indicted for their participation in an October 2020 rescue action at the D.C.-based Washington Surgi-Clinic (WSC), the abortion facility run by Cesare Santangelo. Santangelo was featured in Live Action’s InHuman investigation stating that if a child was born alive at his facility during an...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge in Wisconsin on Wednesday ruled that a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the father of a man shot and killed by Kyle Rittenhouse during a protest in 2020 can proceed against Rittenhouse, police officers and others. The father of Anthony Huber, one of two men shot and killed by Rittenhouse, filed the lawsuit in 2021, accusing officers of allowing for a dangerous situation that violated his son's constitutional rights and resulted in his death. Anthony Huber's father, John Huber, also alleged that Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, conspired...

A federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama faced backlash this week for issuing a preliminary injunction against a law signed by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that targets woke indoctrination in higher education. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued the ruling Thursday against the “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (W.O.K.E.) Act,” officially dubbed the Individual Freedom Act. The judge’s move means that the law cannot be enforced on college campuses for now. “The law officially bans professors from expressing disfavored viewpoints in university classrooms while permitting unfettered expression of the opposite viewpoints,” Walker wrote in...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida judge on Thursday declared a Florida law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that restricts race-based conversation and analysis in business and education unconstitutional. Tallahassee U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said in a 44-page ruling that the “Stop WOKE” act violates the First Amendment and is impermissibly vague. Walker also refused to issue a stay that would keep the law in effect during any appeal by the state. The law targets what DeSantis has called a “pernicious” ideology exemplified by critical race theory — the idea that racism is systemic in U.S. institutions...