Free Republic

Madison - A Dane County judge permanently enjoined the state's new voter ID law on Monday - the second judge in a week to block the requirement that voters show photo identification at the polls. "A government that undermines the very foundation of its existence - the people's inherent, pre-constitutional right to vote - imperils its legitimacy as a government by the people, for the people, and especially of the people," said the eight-page opinion by Dane County Judge Richard Niess. "It sows the seeds for its own demise as a democratic institution. This is precisely what 2011 Wisconsin Act...

Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan, who granted a temporary injunction against Wisconsin's new voter identification law, signed a petition urging the recall of Gov. Scott Walker. *** His clerk called back to say Flanagan would only answer questions submitted in writing at the courthouse. State Republican Party spokesman Ben Sparks said his party will be filing a complaint with the state Judicial Commission asking it to investigate why Flanagan did not recuse himself. "The very fact that Dane County Judge David Flanagan signed a petition to recall Governor Walker calls today's court proceedings regarding Wisconsin's voter ID law into...

One judge lied for her, had sex with her and shared painkillers with her. Another sent her to prison Wednesday. Knox County Criminal Court Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz ordered Deena Castleman, 37, to serve six years for a slew of convictions, including aggravated burglary, theft, DUI and possession of prescription painkillers. Castleman racked up all those charges while engaged in a relationship with former Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner that included sex and both pill-procuring for him and pill-using with him, according to portions of a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe made public earlier this month. At least one of...

Jenny, they've got your number in a legal battle ASSOCIATED PRESS May 20, 2007 LINCOLN, R.I. – One-hit wonder Tommy Tutone made the phone number 867-5309 famous in the band's 1982 hit single, which uses the digits over and over in its catchy refrain. Now, a Rhode Island company and a national firm are battling over the right to use the number, which doesn't reach the “Jenny” that Tutone sings about but could find callers a decent plumber. Two years ago, Gem Plumbing & Heating of Lincoln, R.I., trademarked the phone number from the song, which reached No. 4 on...

He has received death threats regularly and was once asked by his pastor to change churches. For years he and his wife wouldn’t leave the house without bodyguards at their side. The pressure got to be so bad that the couple eventually stopped going out at all, unless it was absolutely necessary. But if you ask Judge George Greer about the experience, he’d tell you it was all in a day’s work. The 16-year veteran of the bench was the adjudicator tasked with hearing the highly publicized case of Terri Schiavo, the 41-year-old brain-damaged woman whose husband applied in 1998...

A federal judge agreed with a Tampa executive's claim that the antidepressant Paxil prompted him to embezzle $1.8 million from a former employer. U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. sentenced Patrick Henry Stewart, 42, to a year of home confinement and five years' probation. Moody granted the reduced sentence Monday in part because defense lawyers produced studies and experts that said Paxil sometimes triggers arrogant and uncontrollable behavior in people with bipolar disorder. Stewart was recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Prosecutors had recommended at least 3 1/2 years in prison as part of a plea agreement. "We believe the wrong...

Former Roane County General Sessions Court Judge Thomas Alva Austin will spend the next 42 months in federal prison for soliciting kickbacks. "You violated the most sacred charge that is to dispense justice fairly and justly," U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips told Austin today during a sentencing hearing. "You violated the trust of the citizens of Roane County." Austin pleaded guilty in March to charges he solicited roughly $14,000 in kickbacks from driving schools where he sent offenders and a probation office where he also ordered offenders to report. However, FBI Special Agent Bob Gibson has alleged in court records...

Roane County General Sessions Court Judge Thomas Alva Austin was a liquor-swigging, marijuana-smoking extortionist who racked up $100,000 in "illegal payoffs" in the past decade, court records allege. But even if that's true - and he certainly isn't conceding guilt - his defense team insists the judge's alleged crimes do not belong in federal court. Defense attorneys Gregory P. Isaacs and Jerrold L. Becker filed a motion Thursday in U.S. District Court to dismiss federal extortion and money laundering charges against the judge. The attorneys contend that even if Austin, 57, committed the litany of misdeeds outlined by the FBI...

NASHVILLE - Ophelia Ford won the election to replace her brother in the Tennessee Senate by a mere 13 votes in September, and her hold on the seat remains tenuous. Senate Republicans tried to void her election last week, but a federal judge halted that effort and will hold a hearing on the matter today. Ford's Memphis district is predominantly black, and she has decried the move to void the election as a racist power grab. Republicans have complained that felons and nonresidents were allowed to vote in the election, and The Commercial Appeal newspaper found two ballots cast in...

The Queens judge who sparked an uproar when she helped a defendant escape arrest through a back exit of the courthouse should be removed from the bench, a disciplinary panel ruled Tuesday in one of its most contentious decisions on record. The judge, Supreme Court Justice Laura D. Blackburne, was immediately taken off active duty by the Office of Court Administration. She faces a lengthy suspension and then, if the Court of Appeals affirms the disciplinary ruling, the end of her nine-year judicial career. In a 9-2 vote that included a forceful dissent, the majority of the Commission on Judicial...

Why? Because that's what he did when Ronnie Earle went after Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Judge Bob Perkins would have heard the case, but he removed himself because he had donated $300 to her Democratic opponent, the Houston Chronicle reports today. The Chronicle also reports that Perkins, the judge who issued the arrest warrant for DeLay, donated $100 in 2002 to the Texas Partnership PAC run by a leading Texas Democrat. This is before he gave money to John Kerry and MoveOn.org in 2004. Perkins should have recused himself in the cases of DeLay co-defendants John Colyandro and Jim Ellis,...

PINELLAS PARK, FL -- Bob Schindler, the father of severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo, said his daugher is "begging for help," and so is her family. Now in her 11th day without food or water after her feeding tube was removed under court order on March 18, Schiavo is "failing," he said, but nevertheless "fighting like hell to live." Although "emaciated," Schiavo is "still communicating," Schindler said, "... And she's responding to me." Schindler spoke to reporters shortly before 1 p.m. outside the Woodside Hospice, where Schiavo is being cared for. Several days ago, a family spokesman reported that Terri's mother,...

Terri's Call to Action Part 1 is over 5000 posts. If you don't want to get caught up to speed at Part 1: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/971896/posts?q=1&&page=5167#5167 Simply visit Terri's official web site at: http://www.terrisfight.org There are contact numbers at her web site for her core media team, legislators, media and for press updates. See flash movies of Terri interacting with her mother, responding to a physician and see for yourself that she's not in PVS "persistant vegetative state"). In addition to access a text file with a lot of information see: http://bellsouthpwp.net/p/c/pc93/FedCourtDktCaseNo8_03-cv-1860-T-26TGW.txt If you want to join Terri's fight, it's important for...