Free Republic

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who previously said that Democratic politicians should "lean into" COVID-19 policies such as vaccine mandates and issued the nation's first such mandate for schoolchildren, is trying to get the federal courts to halt a vaccine mandate for prison guards. Two weeks ago, a federal judge ruled that the COVID-19 vaccine must be mandated for California's prison guards on Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment) grounds given the risk unvaccinated guards pose to incarcerated individuals. Only 42% of prison guards are fully vaccinated. The state's prison guard union — a group that donated $1.75 million to Newsom...

A New Jersey federal judge ruled this week that the Archdiocese of Newark can be held financially responsible for the abuse committed by Theodore McCarrick, a disgraced former cardinal, according to one media report. According to a report from the New York Post, District Court Judge Madeline Arleo found that the Newark archdiocese is “vicariously liable” for McCarrick’s actions. According to the Legal Information Institute, “vicarious liability” refers to liability that a supervisory party, such as an employer, bears for the actionable conduct of a subordinate or associate, such as an employee, based on the relationship between the two parties....

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is drowning in red ink, having lost $9.2 billion in 2020 alone. Things weren’t looking rosy before the pandemic, either. In fact, America’s mail carrier has shed more than $80 billion over the past 15 years. When faced with such gargantuan losses, many businesses swiftly introduce far-reaching changes to pivot back to profitability. But owing to the strange, tangled status of the USPS as a government-managed enterprise, key decisions to get the agency back into the black are undermined by the actions of other branches of government. In recent years, the judicial branch has played...

A federal appeals court reinstated Texas’ controversial "fetal heart beat" abortion ban on Friday night, days after a lower court suspended the Republican-backed law. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay, effectively pausing U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman’s decision to grant a temporary restraining order against the abortion ban earlier this week. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, had appealed the lower court’s decision. "Great news tonight, The Fifth Circuit has granted an administrative stay on #SB8. I will fight federal overreach at every turn," Paxton wrote on Twitter after the decision. The appeals court...

Jack Posobiec @JackPosobiec ·33m BREAKING: Federal circuit court reinstates Texas heartbeat abortion ban 8:55PM • Oct 8, 2021

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is facing criticism after congratulating a Korean American judicial nominee on Wednesday, commenting on the “hard work ethic” of “you and your people.” “What you said about your Korean background reminds me a lot of what my daughter-in-law of 45 years has said: ‘If I learned anything from Korean people, it’s a hard work ethic. And how you can make a lot out of nothing,’ ” the 88-year-old told judicial nominee Lucy Koh on Wednesday. “So I congratulate you and your people,” he added. Koh thanked the senator following the comments. Grassley, who is running for...

(CNN)A federal judge in Texas issued an order Wednesday blocking the state's six-week abortion ban. US District Judge Robert Pitman's order is a victory for abortion rights proponents, who had seen other attempts to block the law stymied by the ban's novel design. It may, however, be only a temporary victory. At a hearing Friday, a lawyer from the Texas attorney general's office made clear that the state would appeal such an order to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals if it were granted. That appeals court -- perhaps the most conservative in the country -- previously rejected a...

I’m the founder of MeWe, the ad-free social network with data privacy and no content amplification or newsfeed manipulation. MeWe competes directly with Facebook. On June 27, 2019, I wrote an op-ed in this newspaper headlined “I Compete With Facebook, and It’s No Monopoly.” I’ve changed my mind. MeWe continues to succeed, albeit on a modest scale. Two years ago the platform had five million users and no revenue. Today it has nearly 20 million users and is breaking even with millions of dollars in revenue. Yet despite MeWe’s growth, Facebook’s troubling actions over the last two years have caused...

A federal district court judge in Texas who was appointed by former President Barack Obama has repeatedly violated ethics standards, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Judge Rodney Gilstrap of Marshall, Texas, in the Eastern District of Texas, failed to disqualify himself in 138 cases over eight years in which he or a family member had a financial interest in a company involved in the case before him, according to the Journal. The Journal recently published the results of an investigation into judicial flouting of a 1974 federal law that bans judges from ruling in cases where...

Judge Beth Bloom, appointed by former President Obama, permanently enjoined the law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that banned Florida cities and counties from protecting criminal illegal aliens from federal immigration law carried out by the ICE agency. “Defendants are permanently enjoined from enforcing Fla. Stat. § 908.103 and Fla. Stat. § 908.104 because these statutory provisions are unconstitutional,” Bloom wrote. As part of her ruling, Bloom accuses DeSantis and Florida Republican Party Chairman State Sen. Joe Gruters (R) of having “discriminatory motives” in their efforts to pass the sanctuary city ban: Here, prior to SB 168’s enactment, there was...

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper has previously said he knew Sussmann in the 1990s The judge in the case of recently indicted Democratic lawyer Michael Sussmann is married to the lawyer who represented a disgraced former FBI official that worked on the Donald Trump-Russia probe that Sussmann played some role in advancing. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper of the District of Columbia, who is presiding over the Sussmann case, is married to lawyer Amy Jeffress, who represented FBI lawyer Lisa Page in a civil case. Cooper, an Obama-appointee, and Jeffress, a former top aide to Attorney General Eric Holder, are...

The Diocese of Charlotte has said the law and religious freedom precedent are on its side, despite a federal judge’s ruling that a Catholic high school illegally discriminated when it said it would no longer hire a substitute teacher who announced that he would contract a same-sex marriage. The ruling both applies a new Supreme Court decision that defines sex discrimination to include sexual orientation, and holds that other religious freedom rulings do not apply. “We respectfully disagree with the district court’s decision and are considering next steps,” the Charlotte diocese said Sept. 4. “The First Amendment, federal law, and...

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers handed down a decision in the Epic Games v. Apple trial on Friday. Rogers issued an injunction that said that Apple will no longer be allowed to prohibit developers from providing links or other communications that direct users away from Apple in-app purchasing. Epic Games’ Fortnite violated Apple’s App Store guidelinesKif Leswing for CNBC: Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers handed down a decision in a closely-watched trial between Apple and Epic Games on Friday.Rogers ordered an injunction that said that Apple will no longer be allowed to prohibit developers from providing links or other communications that direct...

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Gov. Ron DeSantis and three Florida sheriffs from enforcing a key portion of the state’s so-called anti-riot law, in part, because it “encourages arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.” The definition of what constitutes a riot under a new state law pushed by the governor is too vague “to the point of unconstitutionality,” U.S. District Judge Mark Walker of Tallahassee wrote in his preliminary injunction order....

ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida's new "anti-riot" law, championed by Florida lawmakers as a way to prevent violent protests, violates First Amendment rights. That's according to a federal judge, who blocked HB 1 Thursday. Chief Federal District Judge Mark Walker said the groups who brought the lawsuit demonstrated that the law chilled protest activities since it was enacted, because "the challenged law's confusing definition of 'riot' fails to give their members sufficient notice of what is prohibited or when they could be subject to arrest, such that their members do not wish to participate in future protests or have ceased organizing...

A federal judge ordered the feds to disclose the identities of Ghislaine Maxwell’s “unnamed co-conspirators.” Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime pal of Bill Clinton, is currently in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York awaiting trial. Advertisement - story continues below Maxwell worked as Jeffrey Epstein’s pimp for years and the DOJ knew they were running girls as young as 12 but they refused to act.

Critical Race Theory has become the central issue in American politics over the past year, thanks largely to the efforts of commentators like Christopher Rufo and army of grassroots parent activists standing up against the anti-white, anti-American poison being taught in American schools. But Critical Race Theory, or CRT, didn’t originate in America’s primary schools. CRT began as a legal doctrine within America’s law schools — and it is in this capacity that it can still do the most damage. Case in point: A federal judge in Nevada just recently demonstrated the potential of CRT as a legal doctrine in...

DETROIT (AP) — A Catholic school in Lansing has lost an appeal over a Michigan policy that required masks on young kids earlier in the pandemic. Although the statewide mandate ended, some counties are stepping in and requiring masks in schools when the 2021-22 year starts. Resurrection School and some parents sued in 2020, saying a state mask order violated the free exercise of religion, among other objections. A judge, however, refused to intervene and issue an injunction. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision Monday.

"A federal judge on Wednesday ordered disciplinary sanctions against Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, and other lawyers who were involved in bringing a legal challenge against Michigan’s 2020 election. The pro-Trump lawyers filed a lawsuit weeks after Election Day accusing public officials of illegally manipulating ballots to get President Biden elected. U.S. District Court Judge Linda Parker wrote in an order on Wednesday that the lawsuit was “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process,” and she ordered the attorneys to pay the legal fees of the city and state elections officials involved in the suit. She ordered the lawyers...

Dylann Roof, the white gunman who killed nine black people in the 2015 Charleston church massacre, is one step closer to execution after a federal appeals court in Virginia ruled he’s eligible to receive the death penalty. “His crimes qualify him for the harshest penalty that a just society can impose,” a three-judge panel for the Richmond-based Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals wrote, according to The State newspaper. Roof was convicted in 2017 of slaughtering nine parishioners at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston after planning the attack for months in an effort to start a race war in the...