Free Republic

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 Friday that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg cannot move forward with possible contempt proceedings against the Trump administration. The case involves the administration’s alleged violation of an emergency court order blocking the administration from using a 1798 law to summarily deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador — the latest in an evolving, high-stakes court clash that has played out for months in various courts. Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, two Trump appointees on the majority-Democrat bench, sided with the Trump administration Friday in blocking Boasberg’s contempt...

A federal judge abused his authority in pursuing contempt proceedings against Trump administration officials for removing alleged Venezuelan gang members from the United States in violation of a court order, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was split 2-1, with two Trump appointees in the majority and an Obama appointee dissenting. The decision overturns Washington-based Chief Judge James Boasberg's finding of probable cause that officials could be held in criminal contempt.

MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered a temporary halt to construction at an immigration detention center — built in the middle of the Florida Everglades and dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” — as attorneys argue whether it violates environmental laws. The facility can continue to operate and hold detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but workers will be barred from adding any new filling, paving or infrastructure for the next 14 days. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued the ruling during a hearing and said she will issue a written order later Thursday. Environmental groups and the Miccosukee...

The Supreme Court just handed Trump the nuclear key: the authority to fire entrenched Deep State agents embedded across federal agencies. For the first time in 90 years, the President can dismantle the bureaucratic dictatorship that’s hijacked our Republic. FOR 90 YEARS, THE PRESIDENCY WAS A PRISON.. Since 1935, unelected operatives hid inside “independent” agencies like the FTC, SEC, and CPSC. These ideological soldiers wrote regulations like laws. Enforced them like tyrants. And they couldn’t be fired—not even by the President. Until now. THE COURT SWINGS THE HAMMER – TRUMP TAKES THE SWORD.. In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court...

Rebukes by the Supreme Court and DC appellate court are not stopping Boasberg's quest to punish the Trump administration for alleged contempt. Now he's the target of complaints of misconduct. Jeb Boasberg is not giving up. Undeterred by recent smackdowns by the Supreme Court and the D.C. appellate court, Boasberg, the Obama-appointed chief judge of the D.C. district court, is preparing to mete out some sort of punishment against the Trump administration for allegedly defying one of his court orders back in March. During a hearing last week in the ACLU’s lawsuit related to the Alien Enemies Act, President Trump’s...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Appellate court judges expressed broad skepticism Thursday over President Donald Trump’s legal rationale for his most expansive round of tariffs. Members of the 11-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington appeared unconvinced by the Trump administration’s insistence that the president could impose tariffs without congressional approval, and it hammered its invocation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to do so. “IEEPA doesn’t even mention the word ‘tariffs’ anywhere,” Circuit Judge Jimmie Reyna said, in a sign of the panel’s incredulity to a government attorney’s arguments. Brett Shumate, the attorney...

A federal judge on Monday expanded a preliminary injunction and blocked Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Provision barring funding for Planned Parenthood nationwide. Earlier this month Judge Talwani, an Obama appointee, issued a TRO and temporarily blocked the reconciliation bill’s provision barring funding for Planned Parenthood. Last Monday, the judge granted a preliminary injunction in part extending a block on barring funding for Planned Parenthood. Today, Judge Talwani expanded her injunction nationwide. The judge’s ruling comes after the US Supreme Court largely restricted lower courts from issuing nationwide injunctions. CNN reported: A federal judge in Boston has widened her block on...

In a 6-3 ruling late last month, Justice Amy Coney Barrett minced no words when it came to so-called “universal injunctions,” lower-court rulings that extended far beyond that court’s jurisdiction. “It is unnecessary to consider whether Congress has constrained the Judiciary; what matters is how the Judiciary may constrain the Executive,” Barrett wrote in the decision. “That goes for judges, too,” Barrett added. “When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too.” That decision, by the way, did not decide the merits of the case in...

The court’s conservative majority has repeatedly sided with Trump on matters related to federal agencies, including their spending, staffing and leadership. After the firings in May, a federal judge had ruled the firings were illegal and reinstated the three to their positions. The Supreme Court signaled again Wednesday that it believes the president has the power to fire the leaders of agencies and commissions that Congress said were independent.Granting another emergency appeal, the justices set aside a Baltimore judge’s order and upheld President Trump’s decision to fire the three Democratic appointees on the Consumer Product Safety Commission. In a brief...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed President Donald Trump to fire members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a federal agency set up by Congress to be independent of political pressures. The justices, granting an emergency request filed by the Trump administration, blocked a Maryland-based federal judge’s ruling that reinstated Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr., all of whom had been appointed by then-President Joe Biden. Without the three members in place, the five-member commission would for now lack the necessary quorum to fulfill its obligation to protect consumers from defective products. Under existing law, members...

A CRASH COURSE IN ARTICLE II. Among other things, the second Trump administration is giving the political world an education in the meaning of Article II of the Constitution, the article that establishes the executive branch and lays out the president’s powers. A lot of people do not like what they are learning.“The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America,” it begins. The article outlines the process for electing the president, establishes qualifications for office, creates the oath of office, and details the process for removing the president. It lists the president’s powers,...

A federal judge on Thursday rehired the Democrat FTC Commissioner who was fired by President Trump earlier this year. US District Judge Loren AliKhan, a Biden appointee, said President Trump’s firing of Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the Democrat FTC Commissioner was illegal. The Trump Administration will promptly appeal this order. Politico reported: A federal judge has restored commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter to her role at the Federal Trade Commission, ruling that President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire the Democratic appointee in March was illegal. U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan issued the order on Thursday, saying that the Trump administration’s firings violated...

A federal judge has written a tentative decision that sides with the anti-American ACLU’s plaintiffs and will block Trump’s Department of Homeland Security agents from raiding Home Depots, car washes and other places in the Los Angeles area (7 counties in the Central District of California) unless they have reasonable suspicion that there is a violation of immigration laws. According to Fox News, US District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a Biden appointee, has written a tentative decision and it is still subject to change. The judge wrote her tentative ruling as leftists attack ICE agents during an immigration raid at...

BREAKING: The U.S. Supreme Court Votes 8-1 to ALLOW President Trump to CUT the Federal Workforce in any department he chooses Justice Ketanji Jackson was the ONLY "No" vote.

A federal judge on Friday temporarily halted deportations of eight immigrants to war-torn South Sudan the day after the Supreme Court greenlighted their removal, saying new claims by the immigrants’ lawyers deserved a hearing. District Judge Randolph Moss proceeded with the extraordinary Fourth of July hearing on Friday afternoon, directing the Trump administration to discuss whether a prior Supreme Court ruling that immigrants slated for removal under an 18th century wartime act invoked by President Donald Trump deserve due process might also apply to those due to be removed to South Sudan. The administration has been trying to deport the...

A Biden-appointed federal judge ruled on Tuesday that President Donald Trump must put a stop to the mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose granted 19 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia a preliminary injunction, first sought in May, stating that the states had proved that “irreparable harm” had been caused by the cuts, according to The Associated Press (AP). The ruling applies to terminated employees in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Center for Tobacco Products in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) among...

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with plans to overhaul the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by reorganizing several of its agencies and substantially cutting their workforce. U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose in Providence, Rhode Island, issued an injunction at the behest of a group of Democratic-led states who challenged a plan HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr announced in March to consolidate agencies and fire 10,000 of the department’s employees. The layoffs, in addition to earlier buyout offers and firings of probationary employees, reduced the number of full-time HHS employees to...

A federal appeals court Friday lifted a lower court’s order that blocked President Donald Trump from moving forward with efforts to dismantle the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that Trump is likely to suffer “irreparable” harm if barred from fully exercising his executive authority over the Institute’s board. The court concluded that the Institute holds “substantial executive power,” meaning its board members are not protected from at-will removal by the president. “As a general rule, the President may remove executive officers at will,” the three-judge panel wrote. They added that...

A federal district court issued a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s attempt to block further disbursement of $5 billion set aside by Congress in 2021 for taxpayer-funded electric vehicle charging stations. The majority of the plaintiffs — 16 states plus the District of Columbia — had still not completed a single charger funded by the program over the past four years. The order excluded National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure charger funding for Minnesota, Vermont and the District of Columbia from the order, finding they had not submitted required documentation. The ruling says that because the funding is allocated according to...

It wasn’t long after the smoke cleared in Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow that the second explosion landed—on Capitol Hill. Except this one was pre-planned.With the precision of a broken clock, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) preemptively introduced a War Powers resolution on June 16—five full days before the June 21 airstrikes—laying the groundwork for a headline-grabbing repudiation before a single B-2 Spirit had lifted off.That’s right—before a single B-2 took flight, the legislative branch had already launched its own volley, aimed not at Tehran, but at the commander in chief. The phrase of the hour? “Unconstitutional.”Except it isn’t. And never was.The...