Free Republic

A federal appeals court on Thursday granted the Trump administration’s request to temporarily pause a lower-court ruling that struck down most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Many homeowners have seen their property taxes increase in recent years because of rising housing prices and local tax rates. But the property tax assessment isn't always set in stone: filing an appeal may lower the cost for years. The median property tax bill in the U.S. in 2024 was $3,500, up 2.8% from $3,349 in 2023, according to an April report by Realtor.com...... Appealing your assessment is "not a terribly difficult investment of time for a residential property owner," said Sepp. "The processes are reasonably easy and fair." Should you be successful, the change typically takes effect for the...

Late Saturday, Washington D.C. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that President Donald Trump violated federal law in firing Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel. Jackson’s decision is forceful, well-written, and arguably wrong under existing precedent. Indeed, it may have just set up an appeal that both presidents and professors have long waited for to reinforce presidential powers.

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a $5-million verdict that E. Jean Carroll won against Donald Trump when a jury found the U.S. president-elect liable for sexually abusing and later defaming the former magazine columnist. . . . . The May 2023 verdict stemmed from an incident around 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan, where Carroll said Trump raped her, and an October 2022 Truth Social post where Trump denied Carroll’s claim as a hoax. Though jurors in federal court in Manhattan did not find that Trump committed rape, they awarded the former Elle...

ST. PAUL — Derek Chauvin was granted permission to test materials from George Floyd’s autopsy in a challenge to Floyd’s cause of death on Monday, Dec. 16, by federal Judge Paul A. Magnuson of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota. In May 2020, 46-year-old Floyd died after Chauvin, then a Minneapolis police officer, kneeled on his neck. Floyd’s death sparked worldwide Black Lives Matter protests in the months following. As part of a bid to reverse his guilty plea in the case, Chauvin filed a motion requesting further testing of Floyd’s autopsy. Chauvin argued in his complaint that his trial...

Special counsel Jack Smith asked a federal appellate court on Wednesday to halt his appeal in President-elect Donald Trump’s classified documents case, citing the results of the 2024 election. “As a result of the election held on November 5, 2024, one of the defendants in this case, Donald J. Trump, is expected to be certified as President-elect on January 6, 2025, and inaugurated on January 20, 2025,” Smith wrote to the Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals. “The Government respectfully requests that the Court hold this appeal in abeyance — and stay the deadline for the Government’s reply brief,...

PINE CITY, N.Y. (WETM) — A New York Assemblyman from Long Island has proposed an amendment to a New York State Environmental Conservation Law aimed at reforming animal seizure protocols following the euthanization of ‘P’Nut the Squirrel’ after he was taken from his home in Pine City by DEC agents on Wednesday. Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz of the 15th Assembly District in Long Island announced on Saturday, Nov. 2, a proposal for an amendment called “Peanut’s Law: Humane Animal Protection Act.” This proposed law would amend Section 11-0512 of New York’s Environmental Conservation Law to prevent incidents like what happened to...

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) recently spoke about the support he is seeing for former President Donald Trump in his state. During an interview with the New York Times, Fetterman was asked why he believes Trump appeals to the swing state’s residents. “There’s a difference between not understanding, but also acknowledging that it exists. And anybody spends time driving around, and you can see the intensity. It’s astonishing,” he replied.

After nearly three months of silence, the U.S. Government has now appealed the June 13, 2024, pistol brace decision to the U.S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The appeal was announced on August 12, 2024. The case is Mock v. Garland, and it was brought by the Firearms Policy Coalition. The ATF pistol brace rule targets stabilizer braces attached to AR pistols, claiming the braces turn AR pistols into short barrel rifles (SBRs). And since SBRs are regulated under the National Firearms Act (1934), the ATF issued its rule on AR-pistol braces to stop what it saw as...

Special counsel Jack Smith has formally appealed a federal judge’s dismissal of criminal charges against former President Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified information after finding the prosecutor was unlawfully appointed. Smith’s office filed a notice saying it would appeal Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling tossing out the 40 charges Trump faced to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Trump-appointed judge on Monday ruled that Attorney General Merrick Garland did not have the authority to appoint a federal officer with the “kind of prosecutorial power wielded by Special Counsel Smith.” “The bottom line is this: The...

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. President Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for July 11th, less than a month away. Of course, it is no secret why Judge Merchan decided on this particular date: it takes place four days before the Republican National Convention is set to begin, on July 15th. The hope, naturally, is that Judge Merchan – in collusion with District Attorney Bragg and Joe Biden’s Justice Department – will sentence President Trump, either by putting him behind bars or at the very least, on house arrest – thus denying him the opportunity to appear at the RNC in-person....

1. Unconstitutional Gag Order that prevented President Trump from criticizing the trial, exposing the many conflicts that should have forced the judge to recuse himself, and the railroading of his fundamental due process rights. 2. Judge Merchan’s many, many conflicts of interests – all of which were disqualifying. His daughter, Loren Merchan, is President of Authentic Campaigns, a political consulting firm that hires the likes of the Biden-Harris Campaign, Adam Schiff, Ilhan Omar, and many other far left Democratic lawmakers. Loren’s firm has made tens of millions off these clients – Juan Merchan, through his daughter, had a direct financial...

The judge who presided over Donald Trump’s fraud case closed off many avenues of appeal, leaving him few ways to escape his felony conviction

The guilty verdict against former President Donald Trump reached by a Manhattan jury on Thursday could ultimately be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, legal experts said. Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an unprecedented verdict against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee just months before the 2024 election. The verdict is likely to be appealed by Trump’s legal team, however, and experts say the final decision in Trump’s hush-money trial could come down to a ruling from the highest court in the land. Attorney Roger Severino, who is the vice president of Domestic Policy...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — who is no fan of former President Donald Trump — criticized the guilty verdict returned Thursday in the business records trial. “These charges never should have been brought in the first place. I expect the conviction to be overturned on appeal,” he posted on X. Critics bashed the short and unpassionate post. Mollie Hemingway, editor-in-chief of the Federalist, responded, “Don’t throw your back out there, buddy. Simmer down!”

Conservative radio host and litigator Mark Levin said Wednesday that former President Donald Trump should immediately appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if convicted by a Manhattan jury, due to serious constitutional issues. MY LEGAL ADVICE TO PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ATTORNEYS: NEXT STEP U.S. SUPREME COURT In Bush v. Gore, the United States Supreme Court interceded in the Florida Supreme Court’s deliberations because that Court was changing the Florida voting system on the fly, thereby violating the EQUAL… — Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) May 29, 2024 The jury began its deliberations Wednesday after Judge Juan Merchan issued his instructions — and,...

ATLANTA — Several other co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case have filed their own appeals over the ruling that allowed the Fulton County District Attorney to stay on the case and are asking that Fani Willis be removed from the case. Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, Cathy Latham, and Michael Roman all filed appeals Monday in the case. They now join former President Donald Trump and former Georgia GOP head David Shafer in appealing the ruling. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis could stay on the case if former special prosecutor Nathan Wade stepped down after...

Special counsel David Weiss urged the judge overseeing the Delaware-based federal gun case against Hunter Biden not to allow the defense to delay proceedings in a pointed motion filed late Friday. On Wednesday, attorneys for President Joe Biden’s son asked to indefinitely stay proceedings pending the outcome of an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit — imploring U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika not to “plow ahead in scheduling a trial.” In that request, the younger Biden characterized the government’s efforts to move forward with the case as “unlawful and illogical.” On Friday, Weiss shot back...

New York Attorney General Letitia James may reportedly wait for a New York court to rule on former President Donald Trump’s appeal to hold off posting a $454 million bond or have it reduced. Trump must post a liquid (cash, securities) bond by Monday’s deadline to block James from enforcing a civil fraud judgment. A New York Appeals Court could rule anytime this week on Trump’s appeal. The court generally issues rulings on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the Washington Post reported. “James might start slowly,” the New York Times reported Monday on her potential action against Trump. “She could even wait...

Former President Donald Trump has been unable to secure the $454 million bond, the full amount of the civil fraud judgment against him, which he must post in order to appeal, his attorneys said in a filing Monday. Trump offered last month to post a $100 million appeal bond rather than the full amount as the process plays out in court, but the judge denied the proposal. Trump's "ongoing diligent efforts have proven that a bond in the judgment’s full amount is 'a practical impossibility,'" the former president's lawyers said, per NBC News. "These diligent efforts have included approaching about...