Free Republic

The Trump administration’s cancellation of more than $100 million in humanities grants to scholars, writers, research groups and other organizations was unconstitutional, and the Department of Government Efficiency had no authority to end the funding, a federal judge in New York ruled on Thursday. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan sided with The Authors Guild, several other groups and several people who had their grants canceled and sued DOGE and the National Endowment for the Humanities. McMahon permanently barred the administration from terminating the grants and criticized DOGE’s use of artificial intelligence in nixing the funding. Government lawyers had...

Conversation Viral News NYC @ViralNewsNYC 🚨New Protest Rules Go Live Today — Anarchists Poised to Take Advantage, Police Say Today, the NYPD was officially shackled by a court settlement that critics say will leave the city more vulnerable the next time protests erupt. Phase II of the Payne settlement has gone into effect, and police warn it’s a recipe for disaster. The deal forces cops into a rigid “tiered” protest response system, bans effective crowd-control tactics like kettling, and puts new oversight units over every move the department makes. Instead of trusting trained officers to make split-second decisions in the...

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon on Friday granted James Cromitie, 58, compassionate release from prison, six months after the three other members of the "Newburgh Four" were freed. The group was arrested in 2009 on charges of conspiracy to bomb Jewish buildings in New York and shoot down National Guard planes. The group was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. Last July, Judge McMahon ordered the other three conspirators released on the grounds that they had been manipulated into the plot by the FBI...

France's Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire announcing electricity rate increases... Production at Libya's largest oil field resuming... Two US Navy SEALS presumed dead after going missing... Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspending his Presidential campaign endorsing President Donald Trump... The Russian military in Syria says that two French fighter jets of the US-led international coalition violated Syrian airspace... A flight radar website showing a US Navy aircraft near Crimea during a Ukrainian attack... Here in the United States a federal judge has released the last of four people...accused of terrorism...ordered release of three others in the case last year saying they...

A federal judge in Manhattan overturned a roughly $4.5 billion settlement between OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP and members of the Sackler family who own the drugmaker, a surprising decision that raises questions about the future of the company and its owners, who have been accused of fueling the nation’s opioid crisis. Judge Colleen McMahon of the Southern District of New York ruled late Thursday that legal releases that would shield members of the Sackler family from civil opioid lawsuits are not permitted under the bankruptcy.

NEW YORK - Anyone who has to go to federal court in Manhattan, Westchester County, and Dutchess County will need to mask up — twice — to get inside, according to a new policy. In a public memo dated Feb. 11, 2021, Chief Judge Colleen McMahon says everyone coming into federal court buildings in the Southern District of New York will need to follow a series of pandemic protocols, including answering questions, getting their temperature checked, and wearing either two masks — a tight-fitting disposable mask under a cloth mask — or a well-fitting FDA-approved KN95 or N95 respirator-style mask.

Manhattan federal court judge Deborah Batts who was slated to oversee Michael Avenatti’s Stormy Daniels-related embezzlement trial, has died. She was 72. The Philadelphia-born jurist, who was the first openly gay member of the federal judiciary, passed away February 2, according to sources familiar with the matter.