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A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday ordered the resentencing of a Staten Island, New York man for attempting to provide material support to Islamic State and kill an FBI agent, saying his 17-year prison term was “shockingly low.” The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Fareed Mumuni’s trial judge abused her discretion in imposing a term that was 80% below the 85 years recommended by federal guidelines, and even below the 18-year term for co-defendant Munther Omar Saleh, who was not accused of attempted murder. In a 2-1 decision, the court said U.S. District Judge Margo...

Republican senators Warren Daniel and Joyce Krawiec released a joint statement on the court order. "An overwhelming majority of North Carolina voters amended the state Constitution to require voter ID, and an unelected judge just suppressed their votes. The bill to implement that amendment was passed by a bipartisan supermajority and was even sponsored by a Democrat. It provides more ways to comply with the ID requirement than almost any state in the country, including issuing free IDs. We urge the Attorney General's office and the State Board of Elections to immediately appeal this decision, since this vote-suppressing judge won't...

Vox.com noted last week: There’s no completely objective way to measure legal ability, but a common metric used by legal employers to identify the most gifted lawyers is whether those lawyers secured a federal clerkship, including the most prestigious clerkships at the Supreme Court. Approximately 40 percent of Trump’s appellate nominees clerked for a Supreme Court justice, and about 80 percent clerked on a federal court of appeals. That compares to less than a quarter of Obama’s nominees who clerked on the Supreme Court, and less than half with a federal appellate clerkship. In other words, based solely on objective...

A federal judge has ruled that a Philadelphia facility where intravenous drug users can get high under the watchful eye of medical professionals is not the same as the "crack houses" that are prohibited under federal law. Leaders in Philadelphia are now moving forward with a nonprofit "supervised injection facility" called Safehouse, with former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) on the board. When Safehouse first announced its plans, U.S. Attorney William McSwain of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania declared that such a facility would violate federal law. Rendell responded by challenging the Justice Department to arrest him. Instead, McSwain filed...

A federal judge has ruled the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program must cover transgender surgery in Wisconsin.Judge William Conley, of U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, an Obama appointee, said a 1997 state regulation that excluded transgender treatments and surgeries from Medicaid coverage violated federal law, including the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare; the federal Medicaid Act; and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.A press release at National Health Law Program (NHeLP), which joined with other law firms in the class action lawsuit that challenged the exclusion, noted the state did not appeal the ruling “and has agreed...

A second appeals court has lifted an injunction blocking the Trump administration from implementing its immigration rule relating to “public charges,” mirroring an order in the Ninth Circuit Court several days before. “Public charge” refers to an individual who is likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, by receiving assistance such as food stamps or Medicaid. The cases stem from a new rule the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) adopted in August that expanded the definition of “public charges” in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The rule provides clarification about what factors would be considered when...

A federal appeals court on Thursday lifted several injunctions that were blocking the Trump administration’s rule restricting immigration eligibility for individuals deemed likely to become public charges. “Public charge” denotes immigrants who are likely to require government assistance, such as food stamps or Medicaid. The Trump administration had moved to restrict the number of new immigrants who would require such assistance, but several courts blocked the rule in October before it could take effect. In its 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed preliminary injunctions against the administration’s rule from federal courts in Washington and California. The rule...

You may have read that a judge has ordered that Don McGahn, the former White House counsel, must testify in response to a Congressional subpoena. What you probably didn’t read in the impeachment press is that the sweeping ruling essentially eliminates a right to confidentiality between a President and his most senior advisers. “The primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings,” wrote Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in a ruling late Monday that was hailed far and wide as a victory over President Trump’s claim that close advisers have immunity from...

A federal judge has ruled that White House staff can be made to testify before Congress, rejecting the Trump administration's claims of immunity. The ruling specifically compels former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify in the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled late Monday that former White House counsel Don McGahn must obey a subpoena for his testimony issued by the House Judiciary Committee. Federal District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said McGahn must appear before Congress but retains the ability to "invoke executive privilege where appropriate" during his appearance. The judge did not put her own ruling on hold, but the Trump administration will likely seek one to put the effect of her ruling on hold while it pursues an appeal. "It is clear to this Court for the reasons explained above that, with respect...

Full title: Corrupt Judge Amy Berman Jackson Refused Roger Stone from Raising the Argument that Would Have Set Him Free. Imagine getting arrested for driving while under the influence and the police do not have to prove you own a car or know how to drive. Then the next thing you know, you are headed for prison without a single shred of proof that you committed a crime. That is what happened to Roger Stone this week. He was found guilty of conspiring with Russia on hacked emails when there is not a shred of proof that Russia took the...

A federal court in Tallahassee struck down a Florida law that listed the governor’s party first on all ballots, which Democrats argued gave Republicans a significant advantage in a state where the two biggest races in 2018 were both within 0.4 percentage points. In his ruling, District Court Judge Mark Walker issued a permanent injunction against the law, stating it violates both the First and 14th amendments of the Constitution. “Florida’s ballot order statute is not neutral; instead, it affects Plaintiffs’ rights in a politically discriminatory way,” Walker wrote. “… It is difficult to imagine what other purpose it could...

When the federal judge presiding over the trial against Roger Stone referred to the government’s star witness, Randy Credico, as “difficult” on Friday, none of the members of the jury or others in the Washington, D.C., court room overheard her pointed remarks. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson made the observation during a side bar discussion with lead government attorney Aaron Zelinsky and Stone lawyer Robert Bushchel, according to a transcript of the court proceedings obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Jackson made the remark after two days of testimony that saw Credico, a comedian and longtime frenemy of Stone’s,...

When the federal judge presiding over the trial against Roger Stone referred to the government’s star witness, Randy Credico, as “difficult” on Friday, none of the members of the jury or others in the Washington, D.C., court room overheard her pointed remarks. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson made the observation during a side bar discussion with lead government attorney Aaron Zelinsky and Stone lawyer Robert Bushchel, according to a transcript of the court proceedings obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Jackson made the remark after two days of testimony that saw Credico, a comedian and longtime frenemy of Stone’s,...

The jury in the Roger Stone trial has been packed with anti-Trump jurors in a transparent conflict of interest as the judge in the case ordered the media to leave the court room. As Tucker Carlson highlighted on his show last night, the judge in Stone’s case is Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee who is “transparently and aggressively political.” Jackson has already prevented Stone from publicly defending himself in the case, allowing the media to continue to slander Stone without him being able to defend himself under threat of imprisonment. Carlson said Jackson’s behavior in court has turned out...

There is an important granular aspect to the validity of the House impeachment process that few are paying attention to. If the HJC loses this case in the DC Appellate Court, it means there is no constitutional foundation recognized to the “impeachment inquiry.” Without the constitutional recognition of the judicial branch then: (a) Pelosi/Lawfare have to restart the process with a genuine House vote; or (b) the ongoing impeachment process will have no recognized constitutional standing; and (c) the Senate could ignore any House impeachment vote, cast without recognized constitutional standing. On October 25th DC Judge Beryl Howell granted the...

A federal judge in New York on Wednesday struck down a Trump administration rule that would make it easier for health care providers to refuse to perform services, such as abortions, that conflict with their religious beliefs. District Judge Paul Engelmayer invalidated the rule on multiple grounds, including a finding that it violated the Constitution’s spending clause by allowing the administration to cut off funds approved by Congress to providers who do not comply with the rule by forcing employees to perform services to which they object. A number of states, including New York, as well as Planned Parenthood and...

A federal judge on Wednesday voided the Trump administration’s “conscience rule” that would have allowed health-care providers to refuse to participate in abortions, sterilizations or other procedures they disagree with on religious or moral grounds. U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan declared the so-called “conscience rule” unconstitutional in a 147-page decision stemming from a lawsuit brought by New York and nearly two dozen other mostly Democratic states and municipalities. The rule had been set to go into effect later this month.

Roger Stone, the longtime Republican political operative and associate of President Trump, arrived on Tuesday for the start of his long-awaited trial for allegedly lying to Congress about his role as a liaison between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks. Jury selection for the trial began Tuesday morning and each side is expected to deliver opening arguments on Wednesday, with the trial expected to last about two weeks. If convicted, Stone could face a maximum of 20 years in prison, though his sentence would likely be less severe. Stone was indicted in January amid special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's...

Social media posts? Banned. Video clips from "The Godfather: Part II?" Banned. Transcripts from "The Godfather: Part II?" Not banned. Those are just some of the unusual ground rules set out by Obama-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson for the widely anticipated trial of former Trump confidant Roger Stone, which begins on Tuesday in Washington.