Free Republic

EUGENE, Ore. — Conservation groups across Oregon have won a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management’s logging plans. On Monday, a federal judge ruled that the BLM had illegally authorized the logging of old-growth forest lands within protected areas called late successional reserves.... ...The court pointed out that logging in these reserves would increase fire hazards and harm nearby habitats.... ...The Cascadia Wildlands Group, alongside other conservation groups,....

CV NEWS FEED // A district judge in Oregon ruled September 30 that Oregon Right to Life is required to cover abortions in its employees’ healthcare insurance plan, dismissing the pro-life organization’s argument that it is a religious organization exempted from the pro-abortion law. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken stated in her ruling that ORTL does not fit inside the category of “religious employer” under the state’s Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA), as it does not mainly or exclusively serve individuals of the same religion. “Plaintiff does not qualify as a ‘religious employer’ under the RHEA because ‘its purpose is...

Today a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted the U.S. Department of Justice's petition for a writ of mandamus seeking dismissal of Juliana v. United States, the so-called "Kids Climate Case." The brief order was short and direct. It noted that the Ninth Circuit had previously concluded that the plaintiffs lacked standing and ordered the case dismissed. Contrary to the plaintiffs' claims, no intervening decisions changed that fact, and that there was no basis for the district court to allow the plaintiffs to amend the complaint. This decision should not have been a...

An LGBT advocacy group sued the U.S. Education Department in hopes of forcing various Christian schools to systematically adhere to the ever-changing and frequently incoherent precepts sanctioned by gay- and transsexual-rights activists. To achieve this end, they reportedly sought to bar students from using tuition grants, student loans, and other federal financial assistance at colleges and universities that work in accordance with religious beliefs on sexuality. They failed. Clinton-nominated Judge Ann Aiken of the U.S. District Court of the District of Oregon ruled on January 12 in favor of Christian colleges and against the plaintiffs.

Amid peaceful protests and the occupation of a national wildlife refuge building in Oregon, Glenn Beck said Monday that ranchers Steven and Dwight Hammond should not go to jail again but the judge who originally sentenced them should. "They received their sentence. They went and they served their sentence. They paid their due, as according to a judge," Beck said on The Glenn Beck Radio Program. "If the judge broke the law, then the judge needs to go to jail." Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, have been charged with arson for fires they said they lit in 2001...