Free Republic

A Texas federal judge on Thursday placed a preliminary injunction on a new Texas law that would allow local authorities to arrest and deport immigrants who enter the state illegally. Senate Bill 4, signed into law in December by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, would make illegally crossing the southern border into Texas a class B misdemeanor. Local law enforcement officials would have the authority from the state to arrest, detain, prosecute, and even deport illegal immigrants. Individuals who refuse to leave could be charged with a second-degree felony and face up to 20 years in prison. Those caught smuggling illegal...

If we possess a right to keep and bear firearms, it stands to reason that we must also have the right to acquire one, but according to a federal judge in Colorado no such right exists. U.S. District Judge John L. Kane, an 86-year-old appointee of Jimmy Carter back in 1977, made the eyebrow-raising decision in a case known as Rocky Mountain Gun Owners v. Polis, which challenges Colorado’s newly-enacted three-day waiting period on all gun sales. Kane denied the group’s request for an injunction that would have halted enforcement of the waiting period while the litigation continues, ruling the...

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting mask mandates in schools violates the Americans with Disabilities Act — freeing local officials to again create their own rules. The order comes after a months long legal dispute between parents, a disability rights organization and Texas officials over whether the state was violating the 1990 law, known as the ADA, by not allowing school districts to require masks. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel barred Attorney General Ken Paxton from enforcing Abbott’s order. “The spread of COVID-19 poses an even greater risk for children with special health needs,”...

A federal judge in Wisconsin on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against the state elections commission. The judge in the case, Brett Ludwig, who was appointed by Trump to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, held a hearing where the president’s lawyers made their arguments to set aside the result of the state’s popular election. Quote: “This Court has allowed plaintiff the chance to make his case and he has lost on the merits,” the judge wrote. In his reply brief, plaintiff ‘asks that the Rule of Law be followed’ …. It...

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to fully restore an Obama-era initiative that protects undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation, requiring officials to open the program to new applicants for the first time since 2017. Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn instructed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to post a public notice by Monday that states the department will accept and adjudicate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) petitions from immigrants who qualify for the program but are not currently enrolled in it. Garaufis also instructed officials to...

The state's fiscal crisis does not outweigh access to health care, a federal judge said in temporarily blocking state Medi-Cal cuts that rural hospitals say would have endangered skilled nursing care for their elderly and long-term patients.The ruling by U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder in Los Angeles federal court Dec. 28 puts the brakes on Medi-Cal cuts that were intended to save California up to $623 million by trimming reimbursement rates to care providers by as much as 10 percent. An earlier round of cuts, also temporarily blocked by the courts, would double the reductions. Medi-Cal, the state's federal Medicaid...

A federal judge has ordered the government to increase protections for about 40 threatened and endangered species that live in national forests in Southern California. Tuesday's decision by U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel requires the federal government to develop new protective measures for imperiled plants and animals . . .

A Texas woman was sentenced to five years probation after pleading guilty to the charge of Injury of a Child. What did this Corpus Christi mother of three do? She spanked her then nearly 2-year-old daughter. "You don't spank children today," said Judge Jose Longoria. "In the old days, maybe we got spanked, but there was a different quarrel. You don't spank children."

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge has ordered California to increase payment rates immediately to thousands of foster parents, noting that it has been more than 2 1/2 years since he ruled that the state's reimbursement levels failed to cover the costs of raising a child. State officials "have now had a full and fair opportunity to come into compliance with federal law. They have not done so," U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco said Friday.He told the state Department of Social Services to raise its rates to levels specified in a UC Davis study of foster children's...

A Sacramento lawsuit alleges that prison receiver J. Clark Kelso – with help from a federal judge, the state courts and CalPERS – is padding his state pension with his federal salary. Daniel E. Francis v. Board of Administration for the California Public Employees' Retirement System contends that Kelso's employment deal illegally washes his pay through the state' Administrative Office of the Courts so that the money can be factored into his retirement. Francis is bringing the suit as a taxpayer, retired state worker and CalPERS member. Kelso's total compensation came to about $270,000 last year, according to state payroll...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- A federal judge who halted lethal injections in California over concerns that it was cruel and unusual punishment plans to tour the state's new death chamber in February. U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel on Wednesday told attorneys representing a death row inmate who filed a lawsuit and the state attorney general's office that he wants to hold a hearing at San Quentin State Prison sometime in February. Fogel is determining whether the state's new lethal injection procedure is constitutional. Fogel halted executions in early 2006 and ordered prison officials to improve their lethal injection...

An Alameda County Superior Court judge today blocked the elimination of funds for a welfare-to-work childcare program until the state notifies parents they can be screened for eligibility for other programs. Judge Wynne Carvill ordered a stay on the cut until the state Department of Education issues new notices to parents that they can be screened to see if they qualify for alternative aid. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut the $256 million from the CalWORKS welfare-to-work program with a line-time veto.

An Alameda Superior Court judge has delayed $256 million in budget cuts to a state program that provides child care assistance to low-income families. The funding cut for CalWORKs Stage 3 Child Care was part of the nearly $1 billion in line-item veto cuts Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made to the budget passed earlier this month. Cuts to the program, which provides child care subsidies to parents who have secured employment after going through California's welfare-to-work program, were scheduled to take effect Monday.

Federal judge issues nationwide injunction stopping enforcement

A federal judge has ordered the release of a Guantanamo Bay detainee imprisoned at the island facility for more than 8 1/2 years.

"Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license," federal Judge Vaughn Walker wrote. So one judge overturned a measure approved by 52 percent of California voters in 2008 and upheld by the California Supreme Court in a 6-1 ruling. . . . Walker summed up support for Prop. 8 as emanating from "a fear or unarticulated dislike of same-sex couples." Wrong. Voters have reason to be afraid lest legalizing same-sex marriage result in unintended consequences - such as the legalization of polygamy, as recommended by a Canadian...

Overregulation: Leave it to California's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to mark the 20th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) with another of its goofy, ripe-for-recision rulings. This one involves the counter height at a couple of Chipotle Mexican Grills in San Diego. Seems the 45-inch walls between customers and the food-preparation areas prevent people in wheelchairs from "fully participating in the selection and preparation of their order," as Judge Daniel Friedman put it. In short, Friedman wrote for the court, the wall "significantly reduced" the "ability to enjoy the Chipotle experience." We won't argue that "the Chipotle...

A balanced budget for Sacramento County? Not so fast. A Sacramento Superior Court judge on Thursday blocked the county's scheduled cuts to medical programs for the poor, ordering that clinics slated for closure remain open. The cuts were set to take effect this weekend – the start of the new fiscal year. Cuts to primary care, including the clinics, were projected to save $7.8 million. It was part of a spending plan the Board of Supervisors approved last month that included layoffs for nearly 700 workers. The board had to balance a $1.9 billion general fund budget. Included in the...

A Connecticut school board has voted to appeal a federal court ruling that would keep the town's two high school graduation ceremonies out of a megachurch. . . . Hall found that holding the June 23 and 24 graduations at First Cathedral Baptist Church in Bloomfield would amount to an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Schwarzenegger administration lost a legal fight Friday to end oversight of California's prison health care system.A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a federal judge can continue with a court-appointed receiver to improve inmate medical care.The appeals court also dismissed the administration's request to stop the receiver's construction plans to add medical beds.Rachel Arrezola, a spokeswoman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the state will appeal the entire ruling