Free Republic

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...

Everything Democrats warned about before Trump returned to office is exactly what they’re either now celebrating or dismissing. President Donald Trump’s second term has been plagued by leftist-led lawfare — with unelected, inferior court judges usurping executive authority in an effort to obstruct or dictate presidential actions. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer admitted in a March interview with Kristen Welker that lawfare is part of Democrats’ success strategy. “Now we have to fight that back in every single way. And we actually have had over 100 cases in the courts where we’ve had a very good record of success. So...

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., argued that the War Powers Act, a Nixon-era law limiting the president’s power to unilaterally wage war, is unconstitutional. President Donald Trump’s decision to order strikes on Iranian nuclear targets over the weekend was “clearly” within his powers under Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution, Johnson said. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., alongside Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, has introduced a War Powers resolution that would bar the U.S. military from “unauthorized hostilities” in Iran. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., argued Tuesday that the War Powers Act is unconstitutional, and vowed that a pending resolution...

The Supreme Court ruled that Trump's deportations to third-world countries can continue without limited notice, blocking an injunction by a little judge who sought to wrest immigration policy away from the executive. The high court slapped down Judge Brian Murphy’s order, but like James Boasberg, another disgrace to the bench, he’s ignoring the ruling.

A federal judge blocked deportations for eight migrants Monday night, appearing to sidestep a Supreme Court order issued just hours before. The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration earlier on Monday to move forward with quickly deporting illegal migrants to countries not specified in their removal orders. The ruling pausing an injunction issued by Judge Brian Murphy, a Biden appointee, which required the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to give migrants notice and allow them to raise concerns about potential threats of torture before deporting them to a “third country.” However, Murphy issued an order Monday night blocking immediate removal...

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday further blocked the Trump administration's attempt to revoke Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students while giving those students additional legal protections. U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs issued the preliminary injunction after having granted a temporary restraining order against the federal government this month. The injunction holds that the administration is blocked from yanking Harvard's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which was based on a May 22 revocation notice the Department of Homeland Security sent to Harvard administrators. In her decision, Burroughs directed the government to “immediately” prepare guidance to alert...

US District Judge Brian Murphy on Monday evening defied the US Supreme Court and said his order barring deportation of illegal aliens to South Sudan remains in effect. In a 6-3 decision, the US Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump Administration to resume deporting illegal aliens to ‘third-party’ countries. The Supreme Court granted the Trump Administration’s emergency application and paused Judge Brian Murphy’s order blocking the third-country removals.

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. government to free former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from the immigration detention center where he has been held since early March while the Trump administration sought to deport him over his role in pro-Palestinian protests. Ruling from the bench in New Jersey, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said it would be “highly, highly unusual” for the government to continue to detain a legal U.S. resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn’t been accused of any violence. In reaching his decision, he said Khalil is likely...

Politics Judge orders release of Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil from ICE detention By Updated on: June 20, 2025 / 3:13 PM EDT / CBS News A federal judge in New Jersey on Friday ordered that Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil must be released from detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as his immigration proceedings play out. During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, Khalil's attorneys asked him to free Khalil from detention or transfer him to New Jersey. Farbiarz agreed, determining that Khalil is not a threat to the community, not a flight risk and that his detention...

A federal judge ruled Monday it was illegal for the Trump administration to cancel several hundred research grants, adding that the cuts raise serious questions about racial discrimination. U.S. District Judge William Young in Massachusetts said the administration’s process was “arbitrary and capricious” and that it did not follow long-held government rules and standards when it abruptly canceled grants deemed to focus on gender identity or diversity, equity and inclusion. In a hearing Monday on two cases calling for the grants to be restored, the judge pushed government lawyers to offer a formal definition of DEI, questioning how grants could...

How crazy is the United States immigration enforcement system? An El Salvadoran man alleged to be a member of the Surenos gang living in Los Angeles who was convicted of murder and other violent crimes is being protected from deportation by the Trump administration because of a December 2024 Biden Department of Justice ruling protecting the killer from being sent back to El Salvador over fears of torture, and a 2025 nationwide injunction by a federal judge delaying deputations to third party countries.