Free Republic

The Trump Administration secured a massive legal victory with far-reaching implications on Saturday, when the D.C. Court of Appeals issued a ruling that could grant the administration relief in several ongoing cases. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Saturday granted a stay on a lower court’s order that had mandated the reinstatement of over 1,000 Voice of America (VOA) employees who had been let go by the Trump Administration, which has moved to largely gut United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM). A lower court judge had previously ordered the reinstatement of all employees and a...

A panel of judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday denied the Trump DOJ’s request to pause a lower court’s block on the administration’s transgender military ban. A second federal judge last week temporarily blocked President Trump’s ban on transgender troops. In January President Trump signed the “Restoring America’s Fighting Force” executive order and the “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” executive orders, which direct every element of the U.S. military to “operate free from any preference based on race or sex” and root out gender insanity and made up pronoun usage, respectively. US District Judge Benjamin Hale...

A panel of New York appeals court judges appeared skeptical about the gargantuan $454 million civil fraud judgment Donald Trump was dealt after he was found liable for business fraud — with one jurist calling it “troubling.” The former president is attempting to reverse or reduce the judgment of $354 million — plus an additional $100 million in interest — after a judge sided with New York Attorney General Letitia James, who argued in a lawsuit Trump inflated his net worth by billions to get better loan and insurance terms. Trump’s lawyers, who have called Judge Arthur Engoron’s February ruling...

New York’s highest court threw out former President Donald Trump’s request to lift his gag order in his business records case. The New York Court of Appeals dismissed Trump’s appeal to lift the gag order that limits him from making public remarks against his prosecutors or their families. Trump’s attorneys requested Judge Juan Merchan lift the order after his conviction, arguing the gag order limits his First Amendment rights and that lifting the order would be in the public’s interest before the presidential election. Yet, the court’s ruling said that “no constitutional question is directly involved” in dismissing Trump’s appeal.

This is a major scandal. It has been more than EIGHT MONTHS since the DC appellate court heard oral arguments in the appeal of Couy Griffin's conviction for the most common J6 misdemeanor--knowingly entering restricted grounds/building. During the hearing on Dec. 4, the 3 judges (Clinton, Obama, Trump) indicated they would send the case back to Judge Trevor McFadden, who found Griffin guilty of 1752(a)(1) in March 2022. Griffin's attorney asked for either an acquittal on the sole charge or require DOJ to prove to McFadden that Griffin knew the area was restricted (he did not go inside the building)...

Kari Lake is appealing to the Arizona Supreme Court to have the courts reconsider her case over her 2022 gubernatorial election loss to Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) after a panel on the Court of Appeals tossed out her case last month. Lawyers for Lake wrote in their filing, obtained by Arizona’s Law, that a new election should be conducted or 275,000 ballots should be struck, which would deliver a victory for Lake, after claiming that “based on new information,” a majority of vote center tabulators in Maricopa County failed and “averaging over 7,000 ballot rejections every thirty minutes shortly after...

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

Oh, where to begin in the latest episode of “America’s Judicial Rollercoaster” featuring the audacious blockade by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals against Texas's gallant effort to enforce its own borders? Yes, you heard that right. In a move that could only be concocted in the wildest dreams of a liberal screenplay writer, the appellate court decided to thumb its nose at the U.S. Supreme Court. Why? Simply to prevent Texas from using Senate Bill 4 to do the unfathomable: arrest and deport illegal immigrants. Gasp! The horror of a state taking steps to protect its citizens and...

Three judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals were ousted by candidates endorsed by Attorney General Ken Paxton, who targeted the court after it ruled against him in a 2021 case. Former Dallas appeals court justice David Schenck, Waco attorney Gina Parker and Richardson attorney Lee Finley were projected to defeat incumbents for the Presiding Judge, Place 7 and Place 8 seats on the state's highest criminal court, according to the Associated Press. This year’s primary presented the first opportunity for Paxton to attempt to oust some of the eight judges who ruled in 2021 the attorney general cannot...

We've got a courtroom curveball coming your way. A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., just made a ruling that might have ripple effects on over a hundred January 6 cases related to the Capitol attack in 2021. The three-judge panel took a close look at a lower court's decision to enhance a defendant's sentence due to "substantial interference with the administration of justice" during the Capitol attack. The catch? The appeals court deemed that the term "administration of justice" doesn't cover Congress's role in the electoral certification process. Translation: the enhanced sentences might not be on solid legal ground....

Former President Donald Trump filed a notice of appeal Monday in the matter of the New York civil judgment finding him liable for fraudulently inflating his net worth on years of financial statements. The judgement curtailed his ability – and that of the Trump Organization – to do business in New York or apply for loans from financial institutions registered with the state. Trump asked an intermediate-level state appellate court to overturn Justice Arthur Engoron’s Feb. 16 ruling in a civil fraud lawsuit brought in 2022 by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Reuters reports. Trump’s post-judgment interest will continue...

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) on Monday issued an appeal from its Geneva, Switzerland, headquarters for upwards of $1.5 billion in additional funding to respond to health crises it sees evolving around the world. “We aim to reach some 87 million people with life-saving humanitarian assistance this year,” said W.H.O. Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Reuters reports.

The federal court set to hear Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against former President Donald Trump has told the lawyers to be prepared to answer questions on the constitutionality of Smith’s appointment. Ed Meese, former attorney general under President Reagan, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case against Trump on Tuesday, arguing that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Smith — a private citizen — is in violation of the Appointments Clause of the Constitution "Not properly clothed in the authority of the federal government, Smith is a modern example of the naked emperor. Illegally appointed, he has no more...

Special Counsel Jack Smith Saturday urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reject President Donald Trump’s immunity and double-jeopardy claim that he will be retried for similar charges on which he has already been acquitted.President Trump is not entitled to immunity in the election case and the criminal charges against him also didn’t violate the principle of double jeopardy, the prosecutors argued.Immunity for a U.S. president applies to civil liability only and not criminal, the special counsel’s office claimed.“The defendant, a former President, does not enjoy immunity from federal prosecution for the offenses charged in this...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will soon consider whether to hear appeals brought by people charged with offenses relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol in cases that could have a major impact on the criminal prosecution of former President Donald Trump. The justices are weighing three different appeals brought by defendants Joseph Fischer, Edward Lang and Garret Miller...The three men are seeking to dismiss a charge accusing them of obstructing an official proceeding, namely the certification by Congress of President Joe Biden’s election victory, which was disrupted by a mob of Trump supporters. Trump has...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court temporarily lifted a gag order on Donald Trump in his 2020 election interference case in Washington on Friday — the latest twist in the legal fight over the restrictions on the former president’s speech. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision puts a hold on the limited gag order to give the judges time to consider Trump’s request for a longer pause on the restrictions while his appeals play out. The appeals court said the temporary pause “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits”...

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police Officer convicted in the murder of George Floyd, is appealing his case to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Chauvin’s lawyer, William Mohrman, on Wednesday filed a petition for review with the state’s highest court, arguing that the district judge’s decision not to move the proceedings out of the city deprived his client of a fair trial. The petition comes a month after the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld Chauvin’s conviction for second-degree murder and let his 22-1/2-year sentence remain in place. Morhman had unsuccessfully asked the appeals court to throw out the ex-officer’s conviction for...

Gov. Josh Shapiro Thursday boldly called on legislators to abolish Pennsylvania’s costly, ineffective and immoral death penalty. In urging legislators to act, an unprecedented move, Mr. Shapiro showed some sorely needed leadership from the governor’s office. Unless Mr. Shapiro engages the legislature, the death-penalty statute will endure. He needs to take the lead in persuading the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate to approve bills that would repeal it. Former Gov. Tom Wolf refused to do that. In making his statement a month after his inauguration, Mr. Shapiro signaled that getting state government out of the business of killing people will...

ALBANY — Gov. Hochul is facing political pressure to appoint a progressive jurist to the state’s highest court following the sudden resignation of Chief Judge Janet DiFiore. Critics contend that DiFiore, who stepped down amid reports of a state ethics probe, led a conservative bloc of four judges that pushed the seven-member Court of Appeals to the right ideologically. Lawmakers and advocates are hoping that Hochul will take the opportunity to appoint someone with a broader understanding of how the criminal justice system impacts minority and low-income New Yorkers, or someone with a public defender background to lead the courts.

A federal appeals court in Richmond on Tuesday cleared the way for a legal effort that seeks to disqualify Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s (R-N.C.) candidacy for office due to his alleged role in the Jan. 6 insurrection by supporters of former President Trump.