Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary legal protections that have granted more than 1 million people from Haiti and Venezuela the right to live and work in the United States. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of San Francisco for the plaintiffs means 600,000 Venezuelans whose temporary protections expired in April or whose protections were about to expire Sept. 10 have status to stay and work in the United States. It also keeps protections for about 500,000 Haitians. Chen scolded Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for revoking protections...

The Republican National Committee was dealt a blow by a unanimous decision of the Third Circuit Appeals Court in the RNC's effort to discard undated and misdated ballots in Pennsylvania. The three-judge panel said in the 55-page ruling that the affected ballots needed to be counted and failing to do so was unconstitutional. Pennsylvania voters are required to write the date on the envelope for their mail-in ballots. "The date requirement imposes a burden on Pennsylvanians' constitutional right to vote," the court ruling reads. "And it culminates in county election boards discarding thousands of ballots each time an election is...

Abrego Garcia immediately put up a legal fight to stop his deportation. “I fear persecution in Uganda on account of my race, nationality, political opinion, and membership in a particular social group. I also fear torture by or at the acquiescence of a public official in that country,” Abrego Garcia said on Saturday. On Monday, Judge Xinis temporarily blocked the Trump Admin from deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Parents of an 11-year-old girl have asked the Supreme Court to hear their complaint against a Massachusetts school district that secretly transitioned her to (sexual deviancy) — even having her work with a gender-transitioning nonprofit behind their backs. Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri say the Ludlow School Committee, a Massachusetts public school system, socially transitioned their daughter against their wishes. School officials at Baird Middle School in Ludlow allowed her to transition to a (censored) identity, use boys’ facilities, go by a male name and use nonbinary pronouns, the parents’ complaint states. “For more than a century, this Court has...

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...