Free Republic

Roughly one week after the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals handed Texas a win on its border security law, SB 4, the law is facing a second legal challenge. The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, and the Texas Civil Rights Project filed a class-action lawsuit on Monday seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to block the law from going into effect. The law, which makes illegal entry into Texas a state crime, is set to go into effect May 15. It gives Texas law enforcement the authority to return illegal foreign nationals to a port...

Within one month of each other, two federal judges ruled that a law passed by Congress is “likely unconstitutional” and ruled in favor of small businesses. At issue is the Corporate Transparency Act, which Congress passed in 2021, overriding a veto issued by then President Donald Trump. The law requires entities incorporated under state law to disclose the personal information of their stakeholders, including current address, identification documents, and other sensitive information, to the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. After Trump’s veto was overridden, several small businesses in Texas sued U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, arguing the...

Not soon after the general election, and within two weeks of each other, two major financial institutions have left a United Nations Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). This is after they joined three years ago, pledging to require environmental social governance standards (ESG) across their platforms, products and systems. According to the "bank-led and UN-convened" NZBA, global banks joined the alliance, pledging to align their lending, investment, and capital markets activities with a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, NZBA explains. Since April 2021, 145 banks in 44 countries with more than $73 trillion in assets have joined NZBA, tripling...

The federal government has the authority to deport foreign nationals in the U.S. illegally over the objection of local authorities, a panel of three judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled. The 29-page ruling was written by Judge Daniel Bress, with judges Michael Hawkins and Richard Clinton concurring. At issue is an April 2019 executive order issued by King County Executive Dow Constantine, which directed county officials to prohibit fixed base operators on a county airfield near Seattle from servicing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement charter flights used to deport illegal foreign nationals. Constantine’s order prohibited King...

In fiscal 2022, 70 percent of the largest cities in the U.S. did not have enough money to pay their bills. In the latest comprehensive analysis of the fiscal health of the 75 most populous cities in the U.S., 53 did not have enough money to pay all of their bills, according to a Truth in Accounting analysis of the latest annual comprehensive financial reports from 2022. In its eighth annual Financial State of the Cities report, TIA found that the 75 largest cities in the U.S. had $307.4 billion worth of assets available to pay bills but their debt,...

“We have a process in place to manage migrants at the border,” Biden said. “We’re working to make sure it’s safe and orderly and humane. “Republican officials should not interfere with that process by waging these political stunts. It’s long overdue for Senate Republicans to come to the table and provide a pathway for citizens, for dreamers, those in temporary status, farm workers and essential workers. We need to modernize our laws so businesses can get workers they need and families don’t have to wait decades to be brought back together.”