Free Republic

ATLANTA -- A Georgia judge has denied a preliminary challenge to block a commission created to discipline and remove state prosecutors, finding that it doesn't violate the U.S. or state constitution. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker on Tuesday rejected the request for an injunction against Georgia’s Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission... Republicans in Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Florida have pushed back on prosecutors who announced they would pursue fewer drug possession cases and shorter prison sentences as a matter of criminal justice reform.... District attorneys argue that they should be able to reject prosecution of whole categories...

The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld Proposition 22, the voter initiative that allows Uber, Lyft and other gig economy companies to classify drivers for their ride-hailing and delivery services as independent contractors rather than as employees. In a unanimous decision released Thursday morning, the state’s top court rejected claims brought by a group of drivers and unions that the law is unconstitutional because it interferes with lawmakers’ authority over matters dealing with worker compensation. The ruling, which was expected following a lopsided hearing in the case in May, marks the end of a years-long legal fight over Proposition 22,...

Ouch! That's the only thing I could think to say in response to reading the order handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Mark Scarsi on Wednesday requiring Hunter Biden's legal team to show cause why they should not be sanctioned for making false statements in their recently filed motion to dismiss. While Hunter was presumably focused on his father's Oval Office address, his attorneys were getting lit up by a federal judge. Here's what happened: On July 15th, Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the Florida criminal case against former President Donald Trump regarding his alleged improper retention of classified documents...

Joe Biden directed Department of Homeland Security boss Alexandro Mayorkas to assemble an “independent security review” of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on July 13. The inclusion of Obama DHS boss Janet Napolitano ensures that this review will be anything but independent. Napolitano made her public debut in the 1991 campaign to keep Clarence Thomas off the U.S. Supreme Court. Anita Hill accused Thomas of sexually harassing her and Napolitano, then with a Phoenix law firm, represented Hill in the matter. In the confirmation proceedings, Hill’s witness Susan Hoerchner, “suddenly developed amnesia,” about parts of her story that contradicted...

Conservative activists are taking aim at race-based grants and programs designed to help members of marginalized communities. Will philanthropies soon find themselves in the crosshairs?The DEI dominoes started falling — or at least wobbling — last summer. There was a Supreme Court ruling all but gutting affirmative action on college campuses. In Hollywood, there was the mass exodus of diversity officers — at Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Netflix and the Motion Picture Academy. Meanwhile, conservative activists launched a barrage of anti-DEI lawsuits with corporations in the crosshairs, like the one filed in March against CBS and Paramount by former (and...

A U.S. judge on Wednesday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a new rule against discrimination on the basis of gender identity in health care. U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola in Gulfport, Mississippi, sided with 15 Republican-led states that sued to challenge the rule, arguing that it exceeded the administration’s authority. The rule was finalized in May and was set to take effect on Friday. It states that a federal prohibition on sex discrimination, part of the Affordable Care Act health insurance law, extends to discrimination against transgender people.

Eight of eleven people indicted in connection with a 2021 Pacific Beach protest that turned violent received sentences Friday ranging from six months to two years in custody....Prosecutors contended the defendants converged on San Diego under the banner of antifa... and while clad in tactical gear proceeded to pepper spray, beat, throw objects at, and use Tasers on various people....The case was believed to be the first criminal conspiracy prosecution in the country against anti-fascist protesters...

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri granted his motion to block what he called President Biden’s latest illegal student loan handout scheme. Bailey said that Congress never gave Biden the authority to saddle working Americans with half-a-trillion dollars in other people's debt and that this is a huge win for the Constitution. Bailey told FOX Business exclusively that it's a huge win for the rule of law. "The Constitution makes clear that Joe Biden does not get to thwart Congress when it suits his political agenda. The Constitution will...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday ruled against a California woman who said her rights were violated after federal officials refused to allow her husband into the country, in part, because of the way his tattoos were interpreted. The 6-3 decision along ideological lines found that citizens don’t necessarily have the right to participate in federal government decisions about whether immigrant spouse can legally live in the U.S. “While Congress has made it easier for spouses to immigrate... said Justice Amy Coney Barrett..it is a fallacy to leap from that premise to the conclusion that United States citizens...

The Supreme Court’s recent blockbuster cases have had to do with hot-button issues like abortion, racial preferences and guns. But this year, one of the court’s most highly anticipated cases has to do with fishermen and administrative law. Don’t be fooled. It may sound dry, but it’s a fascinating case that could upend a deep injustice in the way that courts treat people who find themselves at odds with powerful executive agencies. In Loper-Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the court will consider whether to do away with a doctrine called Chevron deference. Chevron states that when resolving cases between administrative agencies...

There have been at least two cases where local judges in Massachusetts have held the license to carry law, which was passed in defiance of the Supreme Court Bruen decision and is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. On May 14, 2024, Judge Kevin J. Finnerty granted a petition against the denial of a Firearm Identification Card (FID). Without an FID, the License to Carry is suspended.On May 20, 2024, Judge William P. Hadley ordered Police Chief David Pratt to issue Randy Westbrook a License to Carry (LTC).The two cases are discussed in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly:Smith noted that Fall River District...

'It's a bigger problem than people think," FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin tells Fox News Digital ..."We have just lost our damn minds when it comes to criminal prosecution," healthcare defense attorney Ron Chapman told Fox News Digital in an interview. "Ninety-five percent of cases do not go to trial, because prosecutors can find fuzzy statutes to get such high maximums or even mandatory minimums at play, which force innocent people to plead guilty. And that's what we're dealing with — we're dealing with tons of innocent people who may not be innocent of all the crimes, but they're innocent of...

Reporter question from today's press conference: "Your office told us that you plan to appeal the gender-affirming ruling from yesterday. So my question today, since we're talking about the budget of taxpayer dollars, why should taxpayer dollars go to this case for the appeal?" Here's my answer. SEE VIDEO

The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that voting is not a fundamental right protected by the Kansas Constitution. The landmark decision on voting rights Friday is likely to weaken legal challenges to future voting restrictions in Kansas. The majority opinion reversed a 2023 appeals court decision that recognized any restrictions on the fundamental right to vote would be subject to the highest legal bar for evaluation, or strict scrutiny. Justice Caleb Stegall wrote for the majority, saying voting is instead a “political right” under the Kansas Constitution that has a lower bar for regulation than fundamental rights. [snip] Kansas Attorney...

Noted attorney Alan Dershowitz said on Thursday that he doubts a New York appellate court will overturn former President Donald Trump’s conviction in his Manhattan trial. …he believes appellate judges will be reluctant to overturn the jury’s decision because they might be biased against the former president. I don’t think it would be reversed by the appellate division,” Dershowitz continued. “These are judges who are terrified of being perceived of as helping Trump in any way. Don’t know whether or not the New York Court of Appeals in Albany will have the ability to not consider the impact it will...

Surprising no one, the staunchly conservative Arkansas Supreme Court unanimously upheld four 2021 state laws that make voting in Arkansas less pleasant, less convenient and less likely to count. In an opinion issued Thursday, the seven-member court overturned former Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen’s 2022 ruling that the four laws at issue hindered the fundamental right to vote and were therefore unconstitutional. [snip] The 2021 laws the state Supreme Court upheld Thursday are: Act 973, which shortens the window to turn in absentee ballots, moving the deadline from the Monday before Election Day to the Friday before. Act 736,...

Hunter Biden is asking appellate courts in both of his criminal cases to consider dismissing his tax and gun charges, according to court documents. Biden asked the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday to hear his arguments for dismissal after a judge in Delaware denied Biden’s requests to drop three felonies related to a 2018 gun purchase. Biden had argued to Judge Maryellen Noreika that his charges should be dropped by claiming that a since-withdrawn plea agreement was actually active and had immunized him from being charged; that special counsel David Weiss, who is overseeing Biden’s prosecutions, was inappropriately...

We have the first opinion, from Justice Jackson in Rudisill v. McDonough. 8 The vote is 7-2, with a dissent by Thomas joined by Alito. This is a case about education benefits for veterans and whether the veteran can access benefits under the Post-9/11 Veterans Act without being subject to limits imposed by the Montgomery GI Bill. The Court holds that service members who, through separate periods of service, accrue benefits under both bills, can use either one, in any order, up to a 48-month aggregate cap. Kavanaugh files a concurring opinion that Barrett joins. Decision is here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-888_1b8e.pdf The...

A paper at the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), founded by researcher John Lott, shows how faith in the police, arrest rates, and crime reporting are all interrelated. The paper is titled " The Collapse in Law Enforcement: As Arrest Rates Plummet, People Have Been Less Willing to Report Crime", published on April 5, 2024. As faith in the police collapses, reporting of crime drops, and so do arrest rates and clearance rates for both violent crimes and property crimes. This has the classic look of a positive feedback loop. The consequences are far from positive. It is not a...

It was Al-Quds Day last Friday. To celebrate the occasion, protesters in Dearborn, Mich., chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” while a speaker named Tarek Bazzi declared the United States — a place that’s afforded him the liberty to openly support rapists, murderers and terrorists — one of the “rottenest countries” on the planet. “It’s the entire system that has to go,” he explained to cheers of, what I assume, were American citizens. As commentator Seth Mandel noted on X, there’s Charlottesville every other day in America, and barely anyone on the left cares. Most progressives, let’s face...