Free Republic

President Joe Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge David Herrera Urias issued a decision Wednesday allowing New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s (D) ban on concealed carry in parks and playgrounds to remain in effect. On September 13, 2023, Breitbart News reported that Urias granted a temporary injunction against Grisham’s September 8, 2023, ban, which prohibited concealed and open carry in larger New Mexico cities like Albuquerque. The ban applied to licensed concealed carriers, too.

On Thursday, a federal court ruled that parents in Maryland do not have a right to opt their children out of classes which teach pro-LGBT curriculum. According to the Washington Free Beacon, the group of parents had filed a lawsuit against Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), demanding that the district revive a policy that allowed them to pull their children out of classes that discussed books and other materials featuring LGBT characters. The policy was first enacted in January but then repealed in March. “The Court concludes the plaintiffs’ asserted due process right to direct their children’s upbringing by opting...

A federal court has ruled that a group of interfaith parents have no proof that a school district violated their right to free expression by removing an option to opt their students out of lessons teaching LGBT ideology that conflicts with their religious values. Parents from Muslim, Christian and Jewish backgrounds sued to restore their right to shield their children from content deemed offensive and pushing sexual indoctrination after the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) enacted a no-opt-out policy. Books that the parents object to for pre-K through fifth grades as part of an LGBT curriculum include Pride Puppy and...

A district judge appointed by Joe Biden has ruled that parents in Montgomery County, Maryland, have no right to opt their children out of the school’s woke LGBTQ curriculum. United States District Judge Deborah L. Boardman ruled against the Muslim-led group of parents who did not want their children exposed to far-left propaganda about sex and gender. The parents sought an injunction before the first day of school on August 28 after the district changed its policies in March to no longer allow parents to opt their children out of being assigned books that advocate pride parades, gender transitioning, and...

On July 31, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong denied the motion to dismiss the lawsuit in a 20-page letter, saying that customers "could believe — erroneously — that the products originated in Texas." "Though it is true that the imagery of the solo white star and lassoing caricature are not exclusive to the state of Texas, taking the imagery and text of the label as a whole, this argument does not discount the possibility that a reasonable consumer would believe that the products are based in or originate from Texas." The class action lawsuit, filed on September 12, 2022,...

Move over, Kato Kaelin. Meet America's newest goofus in the legal system, Kato Crews. According to the Washington Examiner: Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) backed another one of President Joe Biden's judicial picks into a legal corner after the nominee admitted to not knowing a criminal law doctrine known as a Brady motion. Colorado Magistrate Judge Kato Crews was before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, where lawmakers from both sides ask questions to inquire about the qualifications of the president's nominees. The 1963 Brady motion is one of the most basic laws of fairness in the judicial system -- mandating...

Judge Kato Crews, nominee for US District Court for the District of Colorado, appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday as part of his confirmation hearings and became the latest nominee who was unable to answer a basic legal question by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA). Crews, who currently serves as a federal magistrate in Colorado, was unable to describe what the landmark US Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland was about. Brady, decided in 1963, “held that withholding exculpatory evidence violates due process ‘where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment.'” Seems like a pretty important case (and principle)...

NAPLES, FLORIDA — Law enforcement has launched a manhunt for Roy McGrath, the ex-chief of staff to former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, after he failed to appear in federal court Monday for the start of his criminal trial on fraud and theft charges. Sheriff’s deputies checked his home Monday morning in Naples, Florida, but McGrath wasn’t there, a spokeswoman said. A judge issued a warrant for his arrest, and the U.S. Marshals Service is calling him a fugitive. The area around McGrath’s Raffia Preserve home in Naples is quiet, a gated community off a main road that features new-build strip...

One of Biden’s judicial nominees is seeing his past actions come back to haunt him, as a sick incident from earlier in his career was brought up during his confirmation hearing. On Wednesday, Michael Delaney, who was nominated for a seat on the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the First Circuit, was grilled by Senate Republicans at his confirmation hearing. The senators probed for details regarding how a prestigious New Hampshire private school Delaney represented dealt with a sexual assault case in 2015. The case in question revolved around 15-year-old Chessy Prout, who was raped by a male student...

A federal judge in New Jersey on Tuesday iced a new law celebrated by liberals that would allow the state to shut down, and likely bankrupt, the firearms industry if a single gun were misused in a crime. U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi, a Biden appointee, said that he agreed with the gun industry that the New Jersey law was likely unconstitutional and granted the National Shooting Sports Foundation a preliminary injunction. The judge, in a 20-page opinion, said that the New Jersey law signed last summer by Gov. Phil Murphy ignored a larger federal law that protects the...

by Becca LondonAt the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, several Biden nominees for Federal judicial positions appeared before Judiciary Committee members for questions. But one group of questions in particular is causing shock and even anger among the public as the video starts to go viral. The questions were posed by Lousiana Senator John Kennedy (R) to state Judge Charnelle Bjelkengren, who was nominated by Biden for the lifetime position of U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Washington. The "answers" were non-existent. Kennedy began by asking Judge Bjelkengren, about Article V of the US Constitution. Bjelkengren responded, "Article V...

A panel of three federal judges in South Carolina ruled Friday the state’s 1st District was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and ordered state lawmakers to redraw the congressional map before any more elections can be held. The decision gave lawmakers until March to draw new lines for the district, which runs along the state’s southern coast and is currently represented by Republican Nancy Mace. The ruling is the latest in suits over this decade’s congressional redistricting based on the 2020 census results, including in states such as Florida and Texas. An individual voter and the state’s NAACP filed the lawsuit...

A homosexual federal judge has endorsed a Colorado state LGBT agenda point signed into law by a gay governor that imposes viewpoint discrimination on Christian counselors, threatening them with so-called "unprofessional conduct" charges if they encourage clients who want to rid themselves of same-sex attractions to do just that. They can, however, encourage clients to pursue homosexual behavior. It's part of a worldwide agenda against the fact that some people want to leave homosexuality, and, in fact, do. Such cases destroy the LGBT community's claim that people are "born" that way.

Judge Todd Edelman had been nominated to serve on the U.S. District Court of WashingtonPresident Biden's nominee for District of Columbia District Court, who once released a man later involved in the murder of a 10-year-old, failed to get enough votes to clear the Judiciary Committee. So, his nomination will expire with the end of the 117th Congress. President Biden nominated Judge Todd Edelman in September to serve on the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C. Edelman currently sits on the district's Superior Court, where he presided over a case involving Christian Wingfield. Wingfield was awaiting trial for illegal possession...

In Chiles v. Salazar, (D CO, Dec. 19, 2022), a Colorado federal district court rejected constitutional challenges to Colorado's ban on mental health professionals engaging in conversion therapy for minors who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or gender non-conforming. In a suit brought by a licensed counselor, the court found no violation of plaintiff's free speech rights because the Minor Therapy Conversion Law regulates professional conduct rather than speech. Any speech that is affected is incidental to the professional conduct. The court also found no violation of plaintiff's free exercise rights, saying in part: According to Ms. Chiles, the...

In 2021, the Washington State legislature passed a ban on future sales or manufacturing of magazines, or other feeding devices which hold over 10 rounds. It does not include .22 rimfire tubular magazines. From the law:(36)”Large capacity magazine” means an ammunition feeding device with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds of ammunition, or any conversion kit, part, or combination of parts, from which such a device can be assembled if those parts are in possession of or under the control of the same person, but shall not be construed to include any of the following:The Washington State magazine...

U.S. District Judge Sarah Merriam dismissed Dr. Bandy Lee’s wrongful termination lawsuit against Yale University. The lawsuit accused Yale of violating Lee’s free speech and professional obligations when she was not reappointed to her role with the school. She claims she was fired over her public statements criticizing then-President Donald Trump and his inner circle. Lee blames her termination on a letter sent to Yale by Trump’s friend Alan Dershowitz. Dr. Lee was not considered a staff member or employee of Yale University. She was a voluntary, unpaid staff member. She sued Yale last March over breach of contract and...

A federal district court judge in Michigan on Thursday denied Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s efforts to dismiss a lawsuit against her office for failing to remove deceased registrants from the state’s voter rolls. In November, the Public Interest Legal Foundation filed the suit, claiming their analysis determined 25,975 dead Michiganders were registered to vote as of August 2021. Of those, 23,663 had been dead for five or more years, while 17,479 had been dead for more than a decade and 3,596 had been dead for at least 20 years.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has failed to convince a judge to dismiss a case that could force the state to remove 25,975 deceased people from its voter rolls. Benson moved for dismissal of a case brought against her in November 2021 by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) for her failure to clean up the state’s voter registration rolls—in an alleged violation of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. On Aug. 25, Benson’s motion to dismiss the case was denied by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. The court also...

(Reuters) -President Joe Biden on Friday nominated a lawyer who represented the Mississippi clinic at the heart of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision to become a federal appeals court judge. Biden's latest slate of nine new judicial nominees included Julie Rikelman, an abortion rights lawyer with the Center for Reproductive Rights whom the president picked to serve on the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Biden's latest nominees continued the White House's push to diversify the federal bench. They include Daniel Calabretta, a California state court judge nominated...