Free Republic

A U.S. district court decided on Wednesday to strike down a 2017 federal regulation that exempted religious employers from the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for employer-sponsored health insurance to cover the cost of contraception. If the ruling holds, religious non-profit organizations such as the Little Sisters of the Poor may now be required to file for an accommodation process with the government that still maintains employees’ access to contraception without the religious organization having to pay. For-profit employers would have access to no religious exemption from the mandate whatsoeve

A federal judge on Monday denied the Department of Justice’s request to unseal grand jury materials in Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal case. In his 31-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, a Barack Obama appointee, says that the grand jury materials do not identify anyone other than Epstein or Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor. The DOJ request came as supporters of President Donald Trump have pushed for more disclosures related to Maxwell and her co-conspirator Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased financier and accused sex trafficker. Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi last month to release "any and...

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...

U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg denied the DOJ’s efforts to unseal grand jury testimonies regarding Jeffrey Epstein and transfer the petition to the Southern District of New York. “For the reasons set forth below, Eleventh Circuit law does not permit this Court to grant the Government’s request; the Court’s hands are tied—a point that the Government concedes,” Rosenberg wrote. The request to send it to Manhattan is because the DOJ asked the court to unseal testimonies in Manhattan connected to Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.

A federal judge on Wednesday denied the Justice Department’s bid to unseal Jeffrey Epstein grand jury transcripts from a Florida investigation. Florida-based US District Judge Robin Rosenberg, an Obama appointee, said the DOJ failed to justify unsealing the records related to grand juries in West Palm Beach in 2005-2007. Judge Rosenberg also denied a request to transfer the matter to the Southern District of New York. Reuters reported: A U.S. judge on Wednesday denied a U.S. Justice Department bid to unseal grand jury transcripts related to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in South Florida, the first ruling...