Free Republic

Federal Judge James Boasberg, dubbed a "Radical left lunatic" by President Donald Trump, is presiding over several high-profile cases challenging actions made by the Trump administration, raising questions about how judges are assigned to cases. The scrutiny comes as Boasberg, an Obama-appointed chief judge of the Washington, D.C. district court, oversees a challenge brought by several media outlets seeking to force the Justice Department to unseal the search warrant on the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., stemming from two federal investigations. "Judge James Boasberg is now involved with the Ilhan Omar case," Steve Ferguson, a self-described business owner with...

Two Democrat-appointed federal judges have extended temporary blocks on the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport criminal illegal aliens. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein has extended an April 9 order for another two weeks that bars the Trump administration from deporting illegal aliens being held in Southern District of New York without first providing them with an opportunity for a hearing. During a hearing Tuesday, Hellerstein, a President Bill Clinton appointee, criticized the Trump administration for its approach to deportations. “This is not the Inquisition, it’s not medieval times,” Hellerstein said. Until the New York court...

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Republican Bill Essayli is not legally serving as the top U.S. prosecutor in Los Angeles. The ruling is the latest roadblock to the Trump administration’s effort to extend handpicked acting U.S. attorneys beyond the 120-day limit set by federal law. The strategy was designed to bypass confirmation by the U.S. Senate — something that generally requires a degree of bipartisan support. Essayli “is unlawfully serving as a ‘de facto’ United States Attorney,” U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright wrote. The order won’t take effect until the court rules on the government’s motion for a...

April 03, 2009, 2:00 p.m. Imperial Judiciary Goes GlobalBy the Editors In 2004, the Supreme Court sowed the seeds for a national-security upheaval when it ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that war prisoners held outside the United States had a right to challenge their detentions in federal court. Last year, in Boumediene v. Bush, the justices continued the seismic shift, holding that the right they had invented in Rasul — a right extended to aliens whose only connection to the United States is in waging war against it — was somehow rooted in our Constitution. Thursday, the inevitable earthquake...

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche took to social media Friday to fire a U.S. attorney newly appointed to his post by judges, further engulfing the leadership of one of the most important prosecutor's offices in the country into uncertainty. Hours after the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia unanimously appointed James Hundley, an attorney with 35 years of experience to the role -- which was vacated after the appointment of President Donald Trump's handpicked attorney was deemed unlawful -- Blanche announced his termination with a snarky statement. "Here we go again. EDVA judges do not pick our...

A Democrat judge has released a Chicago man with 57 prior arrests after he pleaded guilty to using a metal bar to smash a man’s jaw in a sneak attack.

Judicial Democrat partisanship has resulted in a decade of leftist decisions on congressional redistricting, election integrity, and abortion. You may know Pennsylvania’s Democrat Supreme Court justices by the misery they inflicted during Covid. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf declared a state of emergency on March 6, 2020, and locked down the state in response to the Covid pandemic. Then a Republican-led legislative resolution passed that would have returned the state to normal operations. The state Supreme Court invalidated the resolution on July 1, and because of that decision, the devastating shutdown lasted until June 2021. Now the judges who made...

NBC News reported shocking interviews with a dozen federal court judges who hid behind anonymity to attack the Supreme Court for overturning their anti-Trump decisions, accusing the conservative dominated Supreme Court of undermining the judiciary. This is the latest in an ongoing battle this year between anti-Trump Resistance judges on the federal bench using their rulings to enact their preferred policies and the Supreme Court trying to rein them in under constitutional order. With Republicans holding the White House and both houses of Congress, Democrat activists are using their allies on the federal bench to obstruct and delay actions by...

AP) — A federal judge said Wednesday that an order by President Donald Trump suspending asylum access at the southern border was unlawful, throwing into doubt one of the key pillars of the president's plan to crack down on migration at the southern border. But he put the ruling on hold for two weeks to give the government time to appeal. In an order Jan. 20, Trump declared that the situation at the southern border constitutes an invasion of America and that he was “suspending the physical entry” of migrants and their ability to seek asylum until he decides it...

June 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a challenge to the legality of state restrictions on assault-style rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines, passing up for now cases that offered the justices a chance to further expand gun rights. The justices turned away two appeals after lower courts upheld a ban in Maryland on powerful semi-automatic rifles such as AR-15s and one in Rhode Island restricting the possession of ammunition feeding devices holding more than 10 rounds. The lower courts rejected arguments that the measures violate the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment right to "keep and...

Two federal judges on Wednesday blocked the removal of Venezuelan nationals and alleged TdA gang members facing deportation under the Alien Enemies Act after the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case. US District Judge for the Southern District of Texas, Fernando Rodriguez, Jr., a Trump appointee, issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) through April 23 or until he issues an order. “Respondents are enjoined from transferring, relocating, or removing J.A.V., J.G.G., W.G.H., or any other person that Respondents claim are subject to removal under the Proclamation, from the El Valle Detention Center; and Respondents are enjoined from...

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to rein in lower court rulings that have prevented a ban on birthright citizenship from taking effect nationwide. Judges should not be able to govern “the whole Nation” from their courtrooms by issuing universal injunctions that block policies across the entire country while litigation is pending, the administration told the justices in its application. “District courts have issued more universal injunctions and TROs [temporary restraining orders] during February 2025 alone than through the first three years of the Biden Administration,” the application states. “That sharp rise in universal injunctions stops the...

2/ State of NY v. Trump, First Circuit Court of Appeals: Appeal from RI District Court case in which ~20 blue states challenged OMB Directive to freeze federal funding. courtlistener.com/docket/6962770… 3/ State of NY v. Trump, Rhode Island District Court, Lawsuit filed by ~20 blue states challenging OMB Directive to freeze federal funding. courtlistener.com/ docket/6958599... 4/ State of NY v. Trump, Southern District of New York, Lawsuit filed by 19 blue states challenging Trump Administration having access and giving access to DOGE of Treasury Dep't databases. courtlistener.com/docket/6962355… 5/ American Fed. of Gov't Employees v. Trump, District Court of District of...

Afederal appeals court on Friday upheld Maryland’s handgun licensing requirements, rejecting an argument from gun-rights activists the law violated the Second Amendment by making it too difficult for people to obtain guns. A majority of judges from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, affirmed a district court judge’s ruling in favor of the state of Maryland. The majority rejected the plaintiffs’ argument the state’s handgun qualification statute tramples on applicants’ Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. The law requires most Maryland residents to obtain a handgun qualification license before purchasing a handgun. Senior Judge...

This is a major scandal. It has been more than EIGHT MONTHS since the DC appellate court heard oral arguments in the appeal of Couy Griffin's conviction for the most common J6 misdemeanor--knowingly entering restricted grounds/building. During the hearing on Dec. 4, the 3 judges (Clinton, Obama, Trump) indicated they would send the case back to Judge Trevor McFadden, who found Griffin guilty of 1752(a)(1) in March 2022. Griffin's attorney asked for either an acquittal on the sole charge or require DOJ to prove to McFadden that Griffin knew the area was restricted (he did not go inside the building)...

If you've been hoping for a solution to the spreading antisemitic protests on college campuses, help may be on the way. This is what's known as hitting them where it hurts. More than a dozen federal judges sent a notification to Columbia University Law School yesterday informing them that they will not be accepting applications from any of their graduates to be law clerks starting with the class of 2024. The judges were led by jurists from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The letter was addressed directly to Columbia President Minouche Shafik....

Last week the US Supreme Court allowed Texas to enforce its immigration law that allows police to arrest illegal aliens. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority rejected an emergency application by the Biden Regime requesting the high court block Texas’ immigration law. The high court temporarily rejected the Biden Regime’s request as litigation made its way through the courts. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last week temporarily suspended the immigration law after the Supreme Court rejected the emergency application. A three-judge panel for the Fifth Circuit in a 2-1 ruling Tuesday night rejected ‘invasion’ claims and issued a new block...

Former President Donald Trump is ineligible under the 14th Amendment to run for president in 2024, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday -- a historic decision that sets up a battle before the nation's highest court.

The Supreme Court declined on Monday to take up a case brought against Dominion Voting Systems and Facebook after the 2020 election by a group of voters who claimed the companies illegally “influenced or interfered with” the contest. Lower courts had previously rejected the case, ruling that the eight voters lacked the procedural threshold – known as standing – needed to bring the suit against parties including the Center for Tech and Civic Life, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. “The court’s refusal to take up this case is no surprise; the lower courts threw it out...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal judge on Thursday struck down key provisions of a 2021 Florida election law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and, in a remarkable move, ruled the state must get court approval for the next 10 years before it enacts further changes in three areas. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, in a blistering 288-page decision, said the law placed restrictions on voters that were unconstitutional and discriminated against minority citizens. Those included limits on drop boxes used for mail-in voting, on giving items to voters waiting in line and new requirements placed on voter registration groups....