Free Republic

A judge who has supported Planned Parenthood has rejected one of our key expert witnesses—someone with detailed knowledge of the abortion giant’s extreme cruelty to tiny infants. Planned Parenthood is suing Sandra Merritt for millions. It wants to crush and bankrupt the 66-year-old grandmother for using a hidden camera to expose its hideous trade in human body parts—brains, hearts, lungs, livers—harvested from the helpless babies it kills. We’re bringing our case in her defense this week—but the judge is tying our hands. Liberty Counsel brings its case in defense of pro-life hero Sandra Merritt this week—but we’re handicapped. That’s because...

We strongly disagree with the district court’s decision to impose a nationwide injunction against the President’s policy on a preliminary, emergency basis over the weekend without even affording the government an opportunity to provide a written defense. Once again, a nationwide injunction is permitting a single judge to thwart the President’s policy judgment on a matter where Congress expressly gave the President authority. Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act plainly states that, “[w]henever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens would be detrimental to the interests of the United States,”...

A federal judge in Oregon blocked the Trump administration Saturday afternoon from enacting a policy that would require new immigrants to demonstrate they have health care or are able to afford it. According to Wall Street Journal, the order, handed down by U.S. District Judge Michael Simon, prohibits the policy from taking effect for 28 days. The next hearing is set for Nov. 22. The policy, which would have taken effect Monday, was introduced last month and primarily affects people attempting to immigrate to the U.S. to join family members. The White House has described the policy as a healthcare...

Portland Press Herald November 1, 2019 Cable companies want judge to pause new Maine law requiring à la carte channel choices BY EDWARD D. MURPHY STAFF WRITER A Maine federal judge is deciding whether to put a temporary hold on a first-in-the-nation law that requires cable companies to offer channels on an à la carte basis, a case that pits consumer choice against corporate control. Federal District Court Judge Nancy Torreson did not indicate when she might rule on the request for a temporary restraining order sought by the Comcast cable company and nine cable broadcasters, including Disney, Fox Cable...

arlier this month, the Trump administration signed a proclamation requiring individuals seeking immigrant visas to show proof of health insurance coverage or the financial means of paying for healthcare before entering the United States. The rule was scheduled to take effect on Sunday, but activists are always able to find a judge willing to block the president. On Sunday, they found him. U.S. District Judge Michael Simon granted a preliminary injunction preventing the rule from taking effect. The federal lawsuit was filed in Portland, Oregon, and claims the healthcare requirement prevents foreign family members of Americans from moving to the...

Relatedly, Representative Collins asserts that HJC's investigation cannot be "preliminarily to" an impeachment trial until the full House passes a resolution authorizing a "formal impeachment proceeding." Collins Mem. at 1. DOJ equivocates on this proposed bright line test to meet the "preliminarily to" requirement, Hr'g Tr. at 69:10-11, but seems to indicate that the House must go at least that far, see DOJ Resp. at 28. Like all bright-line rules, this "House resolution" test is appealing in terms of being easy to apply. Yet, the reasoning supporting this proposed test is fatally flawed. The precedential support cited for the "House...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) must hand over to Congress certain redacted information from Robert Mueller's special counsel report, a federal judge ruled Friday in a major win for House Democrats investigating President Trump. The opinion from D.C. District Court Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee, ruled that House Democrats on the Judiciary Committee had proven that they have a justifiable reason for obtaining the records related to Mueller's grand jury now that they are pursuing an impeachment inquiry into the president. And Howell ruled that the House does not need to authorize the Democrats' impeachment inquiry with a floor...

Federal Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee on Friday sided with House Democrats granting them access to the secret grand jury information and underlying intelligence materials in Robert Mueller’s report. Robert Mueller’s garbage ‘Trump-Russia’ report was released in the Spring and up until Friday, the grand jury material was redacted. Judge Howell wrote a 75-page memorandum opinion granting the House Democrats access to the secret grand jury material because the “Speaker of the House has announced an official impeachment inquiry.” The corrupt Obama judge also cited White House Counsel Pat Cipollone’s letter in her decision to grant the House access...

Federal appeals court rejects Trump's appeal of House subpoena for his tax returns

Two associates of Rudy Giuliani made their initial appearance before a federal judge on Thursday, less than 24 hours after they were arrested on campaign finance violations while trying to board an international flight with one-way tickets at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington D.C. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman appeared in federal court in Alexandria, Va. to face a four-count indictment alleging that they, along with two other co-defendants, conspired to violate a ban on foreign donations and contributions in connection with federal and state elections. The two men remained mostly silent during their appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge...

A California judge is crippling the nation’s immigration enforcement system, amid the myriad examples of murders and crimes committed by illegal migrants, ICE director Matt Albence said at a White House press conference. Immigration enforcement is “being singled out and marginalized in ways that no other federal law enforcement organization has to tolerate,” he said. “Tying our hands from the bench does not make our country any safer.” The judge’s action was prompted by an ACLU lawsuit, which argued that some U.S. citizens were being misidentified as migrants by police databases. The judge announced September 27 he would end ICE’s...

In an unusual move, Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Thursday ordered the White House to preserve records of President Trump’s dealings with foreign leaders.  Jackson, an Obama appointee, issued the order on Thursday and demanded the White House not destroy records of “meetings, phone calls, and other communications with foreign leaders.”Jackson’s order is in response to a lawsuit brought by radical left-wing watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.  The order by Jackson appears to cover President Trump directly, although it doesn’t mention Trump by name, it covers all “defendants,” and President Trump is one of the two defendants...

A federal judge has ordered the White House to preserve records of President Trump's "meetings, phone calls, and other communications with foreign leaders." U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson,, an appointee of former President Obama, issued the directive on Thursday. The order called on the Trump administration to preserve “all records of efforts by White House or other executive branch officials to return, ‘claw back,’ ’lock down’ or recall White House records."

A federal judge has ruled that Harvard does not discriminate against Asian Americans in its admissions process. The plaintiffs in the case presented evidence that Harvard’s “personal” scoring of individual applicants tended to be decidedly lower for otherwise high-achieving Asian students than for other racial groups. From a NY Times opinion piece I wrote about last June: Harvard evaluated applicants on the extent to which they possessed the following traits: likability, helpfulness, courage, kindness, positive personality, people like to be around them, the person is widely respected. Asian-Americans, who had the highest scores in both the academic and extracurricular...

A federal judge blocked Georgia's heartbeat bill from going into effect, striking a blow against the pro-life movement that has seen significant legislative achievements repeatedly blunted by the courts. District judge Steve C. Jones granted a preliminary injunction that prevents the state from enforcing a new law limiting abortions after a baby's heartbeat is detected, which typically occurs at six weeks. Jones said the bill potentially violates the privacy rights of women in the state. The ruling will preserve the state's existing abortion regulations until the court weighs the merits of the law. Governor Brian Kemp (R.) signed the bill,...

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Harvard University does not discriminate against Asian Americans in undergraduate admissions, handing the school a victory in a lawsuit that marks one of the latest chapters in the affirmative action debate. U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs rejected claims of a plaintiff that Harvard violates the law as it considers race in selecting an incoming freshman class. While Harvard’s “admissions process may be imperfect,” Burroughs wrote, the judge concluded that statistical disparities among racial groups of applicants “are not the result of any racial animus or conscious prejudice.” The judge also found that Harvard...

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams in Manhattan,(Obama appointee) who found Hunter Biden’s partner Devon Archer “Not Guilty” was the same judge who resided over several Trump cases. She overturned a lower court decision. Her husband, Greg Donald Andres, formerly a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell serves with Robert Mueller on the Special Counsel investigation

LOS ANGELES - A U.S. judge on Friday blocked new Trump administration rules that would enable the government to keep immigrant children in detention facilities with their parents indefinitely. U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles said the rules conflict with a 1997 settlement agreement that requires the government to release immigrant children caught on the border as quickly as possible to relatives in the U.S. and says they can only be held in facilities licensed by a state. Gee said the Flores agreement — named for a teenage plaintiff — will remain in place and govern the...

A federal judge in California blocked the Trump administration from carrying out plans to detain immigrant families indefinitely while their requests for asylum are pending. Friday’s ruling is the latest in a string of judicial orders blocking efforts designed to curb illegal immigration and the flow of mostly asylum-seeing families from Central America. The ruling is likely to be appealed. Judge Gee, an Obama appointee, said she struck down the new plan because it didn’t meet a provision called the Flores agreement that prohibits the U.S. from detaining children in immigration jails. Families who cross into the U.S. illegally and...

A federal judge upheld California’s ban on many popular semi-automatic rifles. U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton said the state could do this because “assault weapons” are “essentially indistinguishable from M-16s.” U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton The case was brought by several gun owners in 2017. They were trying to prove the obvious, that California’s “assault-weapon” ban is unconstitutional, as it bans commonly owned and popular firearms. The judge justified her decision, in part, by claiming modern sporting rifles (MSR) are not popularly owned. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) begs to differ. “More than 16 million were sold...