Free Republic

Tennessee and Kentucky can continue to ban gender-affirming care for young transgender people while legal challenges against those state laws proceed, federal appeals judges ruled. In a 2-1 decision by a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel late Thursday, the majority wrote that elected lawmakers made “precise cost-benefit decisions” in instituting the bans and “did not trigger any reason for judges to second-guess them.” The laws were passed by Republican majorities in both states. “Prohibiting citizens and legislatures from offering their perspectives on high-stakes medical policies, in which compassion for the child points in both directions, is not something...

BILLINGS, Mont.—A Montana rancher illegally used tissue and testicles from wild sheep killed by hunters in central Asia and the United States to breed “giant” hybrid sheep for sale to private hunting preserves in Texas, according to court documents and federal prosecutors. Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, 80, of Vaughn, Montana pleaded guilty to felony charges of wildlife trafficking and conspiracy to traffic wildlife during an appearance Tuesday before a federal judge in Great Falls. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Court documents describe a yearslong conspiracy, beginning in 2013, in which Mr....

On December 20, 2023, US District Judge Cormac J. Carney issued an order granting a preliminary injunction against the defendants (the State of California government). The injunction stopped the state from enforcing the blatantly unconstitutional SB-2 law declaring most of California as “sensitive places” where even licensed concealed carriers were forbidden to carry arms in public. The state asked for an order to stop the injunction from going into effect on December 22, 2023. The stay was granted on December 30, 2023, by an administrative three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit. The stay was appealed to the Ninth Circuit three-judge...

Less than a week after a Del Rio-based federal judge ruled against Texas in the ongoing fight over the state’s razor wire, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals paused that decision while it reviews the case. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday temporarily halted a lower court order that gave Border Patrol agents legal cover to continue cutting concertina wire that Texas has installed on the banks of the Rio Grande. U.S. District Judge Alia Moses of Del Rio on Wednesday ruled against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, which wanted the judge to order Border Patrol...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a California law that would have banned carrying firearms in most public places, ruling that it violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and deprives people of their ability to defend themselves and their loved ones. The law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September was set to take effect Jan. 1. It would have prohibited people from carrying concealed guns in 26 places including public parks and playgrounds, churches, banks and zoos. The ban would apply whether the person has a permit to carry a concealed weapon or...

On Friday, Judge Thomas S. Kleeh issued a decision striking down the federal prohibition against 18 to 20-year-olds purchasing handguns. The plaintiffs in the case are Steven Robert Brown, Benjamin Weekley, the Second Amendment Foundation, and the West Virginia Citizens Defense League. Judge Kleeh, a Donald Trump appointee, is Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. Kleeh put the case in context: This case requires the Court to assess the protected right of the people under the Second Amendment to the Constitution to keep and bear arms. U.S. Const. amend. II. Plaintiffs...

A federal judge in the Western District of Texas reversed her Temporary Restraining Order that stopped the Department of Homeland Security from cutting border barriers put in place by the State of Texas. The new order issued Wednesday night reverses that position after the judge heard additional evidence. The case will now proceed to a trial on the merits. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Texas Public Policy Foundation filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Border Patrol, and multiple Biden administration appointees to stop the federal government’s interference...

A federal judge issued an extraordinary temporary restraining order Monday barring the Biden administration from destroying or tampering with a temporary concertina wire fence installed by Texas to protect its border with Mexico. Chief U.S. District Judge Alia Moses, in Del Rio, ruled Texas had a likelihood of prevailing it its lawsuit and would suffer significant harm if federal officials were allowed to keep dismantling the fence. The decision dealt a stinging rebuke to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and a win for states seeking to enforce border security on their own in the absence of help from the federal...

A federal judge in Tulsa ruled Thursday that the Oklahoma Legislature was justified in banning gender-affirming medical care for minors, saying there was no fundamental right to the treatment and that a new state law did not discriminate against transgender adolescents. U.S. District Judge John F. Heil III said the law, enacted in May, is “rationally related to legitimate state interests because it regulates parental decision-making as to the Treatment Protocols based on the legislature’s interests in protecting children, public health, and integrity of the medical profession. “This (is) an area in which medical and policy debate is unfolding, and...

A full federal appeals court declined to take up Democrat groups’ challenge of Florida’s 2021 election integrity law on Thursday, marking a major win for Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-controlled state legislature. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Thursday’s decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals “let stand an April ruling by a three-judge panel of the [court] that sided with the state on major issues in the case.” The 11th Circuit’s April decision effectively overturned a prior ruling issued by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker — an Obama appointee — who baselessly claimed the law in question discriminated...

A tenured professor fired less than a month after seeking the scientific evidence behind her public university's COVID-19 policies and challenging the legality of its vaccine mandate will get to continue her First Amendment retaliation lawsuit against the University of Maine System. Patricia Griffin has sufficiently alleged "the subject matter of her speech pertained to a matter of great public concern and was outside the scope of her duties as a professor of marketing" at the University of Southern Maine, U.S. District Judge Jon Levy ruled last month, clearing the way for trial on that issue while dismissing Griffin's other...

The measure barred trans women and girls of all ages from participating in female sports teams at public schools in the state, from primary school through college. A federal appeals court on Thursday refused to allow Idaho to enforce a first-in-the-nation ban on transgender women and girls from participating in female sports leagues, saying the measure likely was unconstitutional. A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel delivered a victory to LGBTQ rights advocates by upholding an injunction blocking Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, the first of many such laws to be enacted by Republican-led states. “This is an...

On April 27, 2023, Governor Jared S. Polis of Colorado signed Senate Bill 23-169 into law. The bill increased the required legal age of a person to purchase firearms from 18 to 21, preventing people under 21 from legally purchasing firearms. Exceptions were provided for people in the United States armed forces or peace officers. The bill was challenged by the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO) with two individuals plaintiffs in April, then amended in May. The RMGO and other plaintiffs asked for a preliminary injunction to prevent enforcement of the statute while the case is undergoing adjudication on July...

A federal Judge in Colorado blocked a gun control law that limits the sales of firearms to people 21 and older, holding that it ran afoul of recent Supreme Court precedent. Phillip Brimmer, chief judge for the U.S. District of Colorado, ruled Monday in favor of a firearms advocacy group that sued in order to block the law known as Senate Bill 169. While the law took effect Monday, the judge blocked it from enforcement, ruling it fails the test established in the Supreme Court's 2022 decision Bruen v. New York Rifle & Pistol Association. Overall, voters are slightly torn...

As noted in Politico describing President Trump’s court appearance yesterday, “Minutes before Trump entered the pin-drop silent room, several federal judges — who have been processing the carnage of Jan. 6, 2021 for more than two years — filed into the public gallery, turning themselves into spectators in a building they typically rule. Chief Judge James Boasberg, who presided over several of the secret grand jury battles that preceded the charges against Trump, was among those marking the moment.”[…] “Boasberg’s presence in the courtroom was a statement in itself. Alongside him was Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who has in her...

The judge in the Pensacola Naval Air Station terrorist shooting case has asked the Biden administration to declare whether victims of the 2019 attack should be barred from suing Saudi Arabia because of “serious and sensitive matters of foreign policy and military affairs.”@media(min-width:0px){#div-gpt-ad-floridabulldog_org-box-3-0-asloaded{max-width:728px!important;max-height:90px!important;}}U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers directed the court clerk to serve her order on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and others, and asked for a response within 30 days of her July 27 order.@media(min-width:0px){#div-gpt-ad-floridabulldog_org-medrectangle-3-0-asloaded{max-width:580px!important;max-height:400px!important;}}“Given the sensitive nature of the United States foreign relations that could be impacted by this case, the Court finds it necessary…to raise the...

On Thursday, a panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals handed Florida Governor a huge victory over Marc Elias, judicial overreach, and industrial strength stupidity. By a 2-1 decision, an Obama judge dissenting, the panel upheld nearly all of Florida’s overhaul of voting rules in May 2021. I would call it controversial, but it was only controversial to people whose lives depend upon supporting vote fraud. In May 2021, the Florida legislature passed a major overhaul of state election law. The law’s goals were to make elections more transparent and trustworthy while outlawing known abuses of the system,...

A San Diego federal judge has issued a ruling that blocks four provisions of California’s strict handgun law, becoming the second U.S. district judge within two weeks to rule that parts of the state’s Unsafe Handgun Act likely violate the Second Amendment. Judge Dana Sabraw’s ruling in the San Diego case could potentially open the door for Californians to purchase hundreds of types of semiautomatic pistols that state officials currently deem “unsafe” and thus do not include on a roster of approved handguns. But the judge issued a stay on his decision, giving Attorney General Rob Bonta time to appeal...

A federal appeals court on Monday vacated a water permit needed by developers to restart construction on the Mountain Valley pipeline in West Virginia, marking the latest setback for the $6.2 billion project. The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found several defects in the review the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection conducted before issuing the permit.

A trio of federal appellate judges upheld a prior legal ruling on Thursday that bars the state of Florida from enforcing the ‘Stop WOKE Act’ while it faces ongoing legal battles related to its constitutionality. The measure, supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis, imposes restrictions on the instruction of race-related concepts in Florida’s public universities. The decision affirmed a ruling ordered by Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker last year, where he granted a preliminary injunction against the legislation, finding that it violated First Amendment rights. “Neither the state of Florida’s authority to regulate public school curriculum nor its interest in...