Free Republic

A federal appeals court has temporarily lifted a nationwide injunction against President Donald Trump’s effort to deny asylum to immigrants who enter the U.S. after passing through another country. Acting at the request of the Trump administration, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an administrative stay Tuesday night that put on hold the injunction issued Monday by San Francisco-based U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar. The temporary hold implemented while the appeals court considers a longer stay essentially restores the legal situation that existed prior to this week, with Trump’s policy blocked only in the Ninth Circuit, which includes...

FULL TITLE: Federal Court Rules Parents Don’t Have a Right to Know When Their Daughters are Considering an Abortion A federal appeals court upheld a block Tuesday on an Indiana law that requires underage girls to inform their parents before having an abortion. A Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals panel allowed the block to remain in place, rejecting an appeal from the state that asked to be allowed to enforce the law, the AP reports. The law, which passed in 2017, strengthens current Indiana laws regarding parental rights by requiring abortion providers to obtain proof of consent from a parent...

FULL TITLE: Federal Judge Rules RICO Charges and Other Counts Against Pro-Life Journalists Will Go to the Jury in Planned Parenthood Baby Parts Suit San Francisco, CA – Judge William Orrick issued a 137-page final order on several motions for summary judgement made by both sides in the Planned Parenthood v. Center for Medical Progress, et. al case, most of which were denied as to the pro-life defendants, with some minor exceptions. The case is slated to begin in Orrick’s San Francisco Federal courtroom on October 2, 2019. The case stemmed from an undercover investigative research project that produced a...

A federal judge on Thursday ordered Georgia to stop using its outdated voting machines after this year and to be ready with hand-marked paper ballots if its new system isn’t in place for the presidential primaries. US District Judge Amy Totenberg’s 153-page ruling Thursday is not a complete victory for either side. A federal lawsuit filed by election integrity advocates and individual Georgia voters argues that the paperless touchscreen voting machines Georgia has used since 2002 are unsecure, vulnerable to hacking and can’t be audited. They have been seeking statewide use of hand-marked paper ballots. A law passed this year...

The trial of a former White House counsel in the Obama administration was postponed suddenly on Tuesday amid concerns about the jury selection process. Politico first reported that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing the case, announced she may have violated Gregory Craig's right to a public trial by limiting public access to jury selection. Proceedings in the trial began Monday, with opening statements expected to take place Tuesday morning. Politico reported that Jackson thought the trial might have to be postponed to November to find another group to lead jury selection. Politico noted that the process...

OUTRAGEOUS: Most Corrupt FBI Agent in US History (Peter Strzok) Lands Most Corrupt Judge in US History (Amy Berman Jackson) to Oversee His Case!!! - ( Full title ) ... The most corrupt judge in US history, Obama appointee Amy Berman Jackson, was assigned to the wrongful termination lawsuit from the most corrupt FBI Agent in US history, Peter Strzok. Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointed liberal judge with a corrupt disposition and anger towards Americans who think differently than Obama, will now apply her own distorted interpretation of the law in corrupt cop Peter Strzok’s wrongful termination case....

Full title:Feds can’t withhold public safety grants for Oregon, city of Portland based on sanctuary law, judge rules A judge has barred the Trump administration from withholding public safety grants from the state and the city of Portland over Oregon’s sanctuary law that directs police not to help federal agents enforce immigration policies. U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane also said the federal government can’t impose immigration-related conditions on the grant awards. McShane, who is seated in Eugene, issued his 44-page decision late Wednesday in a case brought in November by Gov. Kate Brown, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed in a letter on Wednesday that the Judiciary Committee will go to court today to force Trump’s former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify. McGahn defied a congressional subpoena to testify a couple months ago, causing the Democrats to go into overdrive. House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) called McGahn a ‘star witness’ alleging Trump obstructed justice when he instructed McGahn to fire Mueller — Trump denies he ever told McGahn to fire Mueller. Mueller was never fired and there was no any underlying crime and no corrupt intent on Trump’s part — NO...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (CN) — The federal judge who temporarily blocked enforcement of Arkansas abortion restrictions extended her order Tuesday while a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the laws proceeds through court. U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker in Little Rock issued a preliminary injunction hours before her two-week temporary restraining order was set to expire. The July 23 restraining order was issued the day before the new laws were to take effect. Tuesday’s 186-page order found the three laws that include a ban on abortion after 18 weeks of pregnancy would cause “ongoing and imminent irreparable harm.” The judge also...

Republicans have failed to promote a single conservative fiscal reform to even tweak the growing welfare state, despite their promise to fight for welfare work requirements. But at least Republicans at a state level are promoting conservatism, right? Well, not if the courts are crowned king of the republic. Courts have become the final arbiter of cultural issues and now even border and national security issues. Thus, it was only a matter of time before they ventured into fiscal/economic issues. Recently, several states have been conditioning Medicaid eligibility upon work requirements. Arkansas, Kentucky, and New Hampshire got a waiver from...

A Montana judge has blocked a Trump administration policy change that stopped nonprofit groups from identifying their big donors on federal disclosure forms. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled Tuesday that the IRS didn't give proper public notice before it stopped requiring social-welfare groups, labor unions and business associations to identify donors contributing more than $5,000. Morris says the IRS changed the 40-year-old rule last year without an opportunity for public comment. He suspended the rule change until the tax agency allows public comment. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal sued over the change.

Guns commonly available on the consumer market in 43 states are banned for ownership in California, a prohibition upheld this week by a federal judge (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)A federal judge this week upheld California’s ban on many popular semi-auto firearms, saying they were “essentially indistinguishable from M-16s.” The order, in a case brought by several gun owners in 2017 seeking to declare California’s “assault weapon” ban unconstitutional, saw U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton side with the state’s point of view. Staton, extensively citing briefs in the case from anti-gun groups such as the Brady Center, Everytown and Giffords, found that...

A federal judge decided Wednesday to leave in place a Trump administration rule that imposes restrictions on individuals seeking asylum in the United States if they passed through a third country on their way to the border between the U.S. and Mexico, potentially leading to a sharp reduction in Central American migrants entering the country. The rule, published in the Federal Register last week, requires people seeking asylum to first apply in one of the countries they pass through on their way to the U.S., with certain exceptions. The rule was quickly met with a legal challenge from advocacy groups,...

A New York federal judge has issued an order definitively blocking the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census in any form, despite the administration's insistence it has abandoned plans to add a question on the census.

A group of Seattle-area baristas who argued in court that they should not be restricted from serving drinks in bikinis and other revealing clothing may have to cover up ⁠— at least for now. CNN reported Saturday that a federal appeals court ruled that women at an Everett, Wash., drive-thru coffee stand may have to cover up. The ruling, made by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, vacated U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman's 2017 decision that placed an injunction on a city ordinance requiring "quick-service facility" workers to wear, at minimum, shorts and a...

A high-ranking Justice Department lawyer told a federal judge on Wednesday that the Trump administration has not abandoned efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census after all, just one day after the Census Bureau said it would start the process of printing the questionnaire without the query. Assistant Attorney General Joseph Hunt said there may yet be "a legally available path" under last week's Supreme Court decision that blocked the question, at least temporarily. The Supreme Court left open the possibility that additional arguments could change its mind. Hunt made his comments on a conference call with...

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld an injunction barring the Trump administration from repurposing approximately $2.5 billion in Pentagon money to the Department of Homeland Security to build a border wall with Mexico, prompting the White House to promise an immediate appeal. A divided three-judge panel on the appellate court agreed with a lower court ruling that prevented the government from tapping Defense Department counterdrug money to build high-priority sections of wall in Arizona and New Mexico. In February, Trump ended a 35-day government shutdown after Congress gave him far less than he wanted. He then declared...

President Trump vowed Saturday to “immediately” appeal a judge’s ruling blocking funding for his border wall, while reviving threats to proceed with stalled deportation raids as soon as a week from now. The president discussed his immigration plans as part of a wide-ranging press conference following the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan. His administration, just after notching a win with the passage of a $4.6 billion bill to address the humanitarian crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border, was dealt a blow Friday when a California judge barred Trump from tapping $2.5 billion in military funding to build high-priority segments of the...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday appealed a U.S. judge’s ruling that blocked his administration from using $2.5 billion in funds intended for anti-drug activities to construct a wall along the southern border with Mexico. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers said in a court filing that they were formally appealing Friday’s ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “[W]e’re immediately appealing it, and we think we’ll win the appeal,” Trump said during a press conference on Saturday at a summit of leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) major economies in Japan. On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge...

U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam on Friday night delivered a massive blow to President Donald Trump's plan to reallocate funds from the Defense Department to construct the highly-anticipated wall along America's southern border. Judge Gilliam, an Obama appointee, turned his previous temporary injunction into a permanent injunction, which barred the Trump administration from building the wall in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. President Trump declared a national emergency this year and redirected $6 billion from the Defense Department's various projects to build the border wall. Friday's ruling specifically blocks the administration from using $2.5 billion in military funds...