Free Republic

A federal judge on Friday blocked a Washington state law requiring Catholic priests to report suspected child abuse or neglect, including any information they learn from sacramental confession, raising concerns about religious liberty. The law, Senate Bill 5375, was slated to go into effect on July 27, but was blocked Friday after Judge David Estudillo of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington granted a preliminary injunction.

Federal immigration authorities say they no longer have to provide on-demand access to detention facilities for members of Congress. The reason? The government shutdown.Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who have been fighting a lawsuit brought by Democratic lawmakers over prior denied visit attempts,have informed lawmakers that they simply don’t have the staff or funding to support those visits. Lawmakers have previously been legally allowed to demand them as part of their oversight duties, which includes monitoring conditions and communicating with detainees facing deportation.And in court, ICE has added another explanation: As a result of the shutdown, there’s now no law...

While President Trump is working overtime to keep America safe and undo the disaster Joe Biden left behind when he opened our borders. Biden flung open the floodgates and let millions of illegals pour into this country, many with serious criminal records. We’ve all seen the headlines: violent crimes, repeat offenders, and senseless tragedies that could have been prevented. One of the biggest obstacles President Trump is facing is the Democrats. Activist immigration judges, to be exact. These activist judges are working just as hard to keep illegals in the country as Trump’s administration has been working to get them...

A Biden-appointed judge gave Letitia James her first win on Friday. Corrupt New York Attorney General Letitia James was arraigned in court in Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday morning. Letitia James’ federal criminal case was assigned to US District Judge Jamar Walker, a Biden appointee. Jamar Walker was appointed by Joe Biden in 2023. James was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia earlier this month. According to the DOJ, Letitia James was charged with two crimes: Bank Fraud under 18 U.S.C. Section 1344 and False Statements to a Financial Institution under 18 U.S.C. Section 1014....

Far-left Democratic Representative LaMonica McIver of New Jersey appeared in court yesterday to answer felony assault charges stemming from the rumble in which she participated outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in the Garden State. McIver’s attorney sought a dismissal from U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper. Semper didn’t buy McIver’s argument that she was charged because she is a far-left, hate-Trump Democrat. But the judge also ordered federal prosecutors to produce more videos of the melee. He also told the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case, Mark McCarren, to push the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE’s...

A federal judge in Chicago just made a decision that’s raising eyebrows — and not just among immigration officers.In a move that’s already stirring debate nationwide, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ruled that ICE agents — yes, federal officers — can be arrested if they take migrants into custody at Cook County courthouses without a proper warrant. Let that sink in for a second. (snip) So, who’s actually in charge here — federal law enforcement… or local judges?And if ICE agents can be arrested for doing their jobs, what kind of message does that send to those who aren’t even...

U.S. District Court Judge LaShonda Hunt, a Biden-appointed federal judge in Illinois, has ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE to dismantle a security fence protecting the federal immigration processing facility in Broadview, Illinois, a facility that has been the site of violent protests and anti-ICE riots since the launch of President Trump’s Operation Midway Blitz earlier this fall.

In issuing her decision, U.S. District Judge April Perry said, “I simply cannot credit [the Trump administration’s] declarations to the extent they contradict state and local law enforcement. … DHS’ perception of events are unreliable.”

The Supreme Court justice's wife and mother sat in the courtroom as Sophie Roske apologized to the family.WASHINGTON — A woman who pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh three years ago was sentenced Friday to more than eight years in prison.Sophie Roske, now 29, was arrested near Kavanaugh’s home in June 2022 and told officials at the time that she intended to kill the associate justice, then herself.She appeared in court on Friday for her sentencing in a yellow jail jumpsuit. Members of Kavanaugh’s family as well as Roske’s were at the sentencing.U.S. District Judge...

Washington — A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled Tuesday that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio violated the First Amendment by targeting pro-Palestinian students for deportation in order to strike fear into international students and curb lawful speech. In a 161-page decision, U.S. District Judge William Young delivered a blistering assessment of the Trump administration's efforts to pursue international students who expressed pro-Palestinian views on college campuses, which he said was constitutionally protected speech. The judge, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, was unsparing not only in his views of Noem and Rubio's actions, but...

A Biden-appointed federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from terminating federal grants to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The Trump administration has terminated more than $500 million in federal funding from the school, claiming it failed to address antisemitism after allowing a “Jew Exclusion Zone” to persist on campus and is continuing to engage in racially discriminatory admissions practices. The preliminary injunction granted by Judge Rita F. Lin, an appointee of President Joe Biden, said the administration likely did not follow the proper procedure in canceling the grants. All grants that were terminated by the administration...

The high court will also hear arguments about overturning a 90-year-old precedent that allowed Congress to create independent agencies.The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for President Donald Trump to fire the sole remaining Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission, the latest victory in his aggressive push to exert greater control over the federal bureaucracy. The justices overturned a lower-court injunction that reinstated Rebecca Slaughter to her position with the agency that oversees antitrust and consumer protection issues while litigation over her removal works its way through the courts. The ruling — while provisional — is significant because the...

US District Judge Amir Ali, a Biden appointee, blocked President Trump from cutting billions of dollars in USAID and foreign aid that Congress authorized. Trump will immediately appeal Judge Ali’s ruling. “President Trump has the executive authority to ensure that all foreign aid is accountable to taxpayers and aligns with the America First priorities people voted for,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement to Reuters. Reuters reported:

President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to allow him to fire Federal Trade Commission commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, who had been reinstated to that post after he had terminated her. Trump in March removed two Democratic commissioners from their posts at the FTC — Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya — as part of his sprawling effort to exert his influence over federal agencies.The question of “cause” for termination is also at the crux of Trump’s bid to remove Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook from her role. President Donald Trump on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to allow him to fire...

Judge Sparkle is from Trinidad. She became a Federal Judge less than six months ago. So she gets to overrule the President of the United States.

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson 🚨BREAKING: The 9th Circuit has blocked the Trump administration from ending legal status for 600,000 Venezuelans. The judicial coup goes on. From Nick Sortor 1:30 PM · Aug 29, 2025

Key Points * Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook sued to challenge her removal by President Donald Trump. * Trump said Monday that he was firing Cook because of allegations that she committed mortgage fraud. * Critics say that the move undermines the independence of the Fed, which sets key interest rates that affect mortgage rates and other debt rates. * The case was assigned to Judge Jia Cobb, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Joe Biden. ========================================================================= A judge set a hearing for Friday morning on Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook’s request to block...

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...

DC Superior Court Judge Kendra Briggs, a Biden appointee, released two of the ‘teens’ who attacked former DOGE member Edward Coristine, AKA “Big Balls.” Earlier this month, 19-year-old Edward Coristine was severely beaten in DC after he jumped into action to save his significant other’s life. Trump posted a photo of Coristine after he was beaten bloody by the mob of teens. The President has since federalized DC to crack down on crime. A police report revealed more details about Edward Coristine’s heroic actions defending his girlfriend from a pack of 10 teens during an attempted carjacking early Sunday morning....

Liberal judges on a federal appeals court just sided with unelected Washington bureaucrats and gutted one of Congress’s most powerful tools to rein in the runaway Administrative State, the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The CRA is clear, when Congress repeals a regulation—and the President signs that repeal—federal agencies are barred from bringing back the same or “substantially similar” rules. That safeguard is critical to protect American workers, families, and businesses from suffocating regulation. But according to Senator Eric Schmitt, that safeguard has now been shredded. “Led by liberal judges, a federal court just undermined one of Congress’s most powerful tools...