Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order to dismantle the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs. The administration said it would challenge the ruling.U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from carrying out plans announced in March that sought to work toward Trump’s goal to shut down the department. It marks a setback to one of the Republican president’s campaign promises.The ruling came in two consolidated lawsuits that said Trump’s plan amounted to an illegal closure...

A school board in Colorado cannot remove sexually explicit, profane, and “transgender” books from school libraries because the school board is conservative, according to a federal judge touted as the first openly lesbian judge west of the Mississippi. The ACLU’s Colorado chapter filed a suit on behalf of two minors, the NAACP Wyoming State Area Conference, and the Authors Guild, claiming that the school district engaged in viewpoint discrimination when removing the books. The judge granted a preliminary injunction in March, forcing the Elizabeth School District (in Elizabeth, a suburb southeast of Denver) to restore the books. Judge Charlotte Sweeney...

The admin filed a brief telling the justices that a federal judge in Massachusetts had exceeded his authority by interfering in “a contract dispute.” The Supreme Court has granted President Donald Trump’s request to halt the reinstatement of millions of dollars in Department of Education grants that the government targeted over concerns about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Chief Justice John Roberts would have denied the administration’s request for relief, according to a court document. Justice Elena Kagan issued a dissent, as did Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, whose dissent was joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. This is a breaking...