Free Republic

Two Democrat-appointed federal judges have extended temporary blocks on the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport criminal illegal aliens. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein has extended an April 9 order for another two weeks that bars the Trump administration from deporting illegal aliens being held in Southern District of New York without first providing them with an opportunity for a hearing. During a hearing Tuesday, Hellerstein, a President Bill Clinton appointee, criticized the Trump administration for its approach to deportations. “This is not the Inquisition, it’s not medieval times,” Hellerstein said. Until the New York court...

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Denver, Colorado, blocked another round of potential deportations under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA). US District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, a Biden appointee, granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the removal of aliens from the district of Colorado. The anti-American ACLU and the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network said during a hearing on Monday that two Venezuelan illegals were facing deportation to El Salvador’s CECOT prison under the Alien Enemies Act. ..... Snip..... The judge also said the Alien Enemies Act doesn’t apply to this case because the United States is not at war...

A federal judge has ruled against the Denver public schools system’s attempts to block immigration officials from carrying out raids on school grounds, marking a win for the Trump administration as it looks to ramp up its deportation efforts. U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico said Denver Public Schools failed to prove that a recent drop in student attendance at schools was due to the Trump administration reversing a 2021 Biden-era policy of protecting schools — and other sensitive areas like churches — from ICE raids. There are currently more than 1.4 million individuals on ICE's final order of removal docket....

A federal judge ruled Monday that a member of the San Jose State women’s volleyball team, who’s been at the center of a transgender controversy, can participate in the Mountain West Conference tournament that begins Wednesday, according to The New York Times. Judge S. Kato Crews, an appointee of President Biden to the U.S. District Court in Colorado, made the decision amid a national transgender controversy over Blaire Fleming, a redshirt senior who joined the Spartans in 2022. “San José State University will continue to support its student-athletes and reject discrimination in all forms,” the university said in a statement...

Jena Griswold, who argued to keep Trump off the presidential ballot, must release records that could show dead people registered to vote... Jena Griswold, Colorado’s rabidly leftist Secretary of State who will forever be known for her anti-democratic drive to knock former President Donald Trump off the ballot, has suffered another election law loss in federal court. The U.S. District Court for the Colorado District last week issued an order demanding the Democrat secretary of state release Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) reports suspected of containing dead registrants on the state’s voter rolls. The reports, according to a settlement, include...

On April 27, 2023, Governor Jared S. Polis of Colorado signed Senate Bill 23-169 into law. The bill increased the required legal age of a person to purchase firearms from 18 to 21, preventing people under 21 from legally purchasing firearms. Exceptions were provided for people in the United States armed forces or peace officers. The bill was challenged by the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO) with two individuals plaintiffs in April, then amended in May. The RMGO and other plaintiffs asked for a preliminary injunction to prevent enforcement of the statute while the case is undergoing adjudication on July...

A federal Judge in Colorado blocked a gun control law that limits the sales of firearms to people 21 and older, holding that it ran afoul of recent Supreme Court precedent. Phillip Brimmer, chief judge for the U.S. District of Colorado, ruled Monday in favor of a firearms advocacy group that sued in order to block the law known as Senate Bill 169. While the law took effect Monday, the judge blocked it from enforcement, ruling it fails the test established in the Supreme Court's 2022 decision Bruen v. New York Rifle & Pistol Association. Overall, voters are slightly torn...

Judge Kato Crews, nominee for US District Court for the District of Colorado, appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday as part of his confirmation hearings and became the latest nominee who was unable to answer a basic legal question by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA). Crews, who currently serves as a federal magistrate in Colorado, was unable to describe what the landmark US Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland was about. Brady, decided in 1963, “held that withholding exculpatory evidence violates due process ‘where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment.'” Seems like a pretty important case (and principle)...

President Joe Biden, as first reported by The Daily Mail, had a private Mass in a room at the Marriott Hotel in Warsaw, Poland, on Wednesday, as back in the United States the White House was announcing that Biden had nominated to a federal district court a magistrate judge endorsed by pro-abortion politicians. The White House put out a press release that day, stating that Biden had nominated U.S. Magistrate Judge Kato Crews to the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. Crews had been recommended to Biden as a district-court nominee in a letter that Democratic Senators John...

A homosexual federal judge has endorsed a Colorado state LGBT agenda point signed into law by a gay governor that imposes viewpoint discrimination on Christian counselors, threatening them with so-called "unprofessional conduct" charges if they encourage clients who want to rid themselves of same-sex attractions to do just that. They can, however, encourage clients to pursue homosexual behavior. It's part of a worldwide agenda against the fact that some people want to leave homosexuality, and, in fact, do. Such cases destroy the LGBT community's claim that people are "born" that way.

In Chiles v. Salazar, (D CO, Dec. 19, 2022), a Colorado federal district court rejected constitutional challenges to Colorado's ban on mental health professionals engaging in conversion therapy for minors who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or gender non-conforming. In a suit brought by a licensed counselor, the court found no violation of plaintiff's free speech rights because the Minor Therapy Conversion Law regulates professional conduct rather than speech. Any speech that is affected is incidental to the professional conduct. The court also found no violation of plaintiff's free exercise rights, saying in part: According to Ms. Chiles, the...

Ruling against town of Superior's law is the first post-Bruen decision on arms bans. Today U.S. District Judge Raymond P. Moore issued a temporary restraining order against the ban on so-called "assault weapons" recently enacted by the town of Superior, Colorado, in Boulder County. The case is Rocky Mountain Gun Owners v. Superior. Lead attorney for the plaintiffs was Barry Arrington, one of Colorado's top lawyers on education law, and now the victor in a major Second Amendment case. Arrington previously served in the Colorado House of Representatives, and as a trustee of the Independence Institute, where I work. Judge...

A federal judge is questioning whether he has jurisdiction to hear a sprawling lawsuit against Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems that accuses the election technology company of organized crime and intimidating its critics. The named plaintiffs to the class action lawsuit, all of whom are in Michigan, allege Dominion has violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act — typically used to prosecute gangs, cartels and the Mafia — by sending cease and desist letters to those who defamed the company. “Generally, Plaintiffs are everyday Americans. They are fathers, mothers, daughters, and sons. They are the neighbor you say good morning...

DENVER - A federal judge has ordered two lawyers who filed a class action lawsuit alleging the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump to pay more than $180,000 in attorney’s fees for defendants Dominion Voting Systems, Facebook and others, saying the lawsuit was intended to manipulate "gullible members of the public" and helped spur the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The now-dismissed suit relied on baseless conspiracy theories spread by the former president and his supporters. It named elected officials in four swing states, Facebook and Denver-based Dominion, whose election machines were at the center of...

Two lawyers who unsuccessfully sued to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. election must pay almost $187,000 to cover the legal fees spent by Facebook Inc., Dominion Voting Systems Inc. and others defending the lawsuit. U.S. Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter said the lawyers — Gary Fielder of Denver and Ernest John Walker, of Benton Harbor, Michigan — must take responsibility for their conduct because the defendants in the “pointless and unjustified lawsuit” were defamed in public court filings. “This lawsuit has been used to manipulate gullible members of the public and foment public unrest,” the judge wrote in...

DENVER (AP) — A federal judge issued a restraining order against a suburban Denver county’s policy allowing parents to opt their children out of a mask mandate at school, finding the rule violates the rights of students with disabilities who are vulnerable to COVID-19. U.S. District Judge John L. Kane on Tuesday called the Douglas County Board of Health order that allowed parents to opt their children out of mask-wearing a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which guarantees equal access to education for all. Kane’s order came after the Douglas County School District filed a federal lawsuit challenging...

Fauci Agency Emails Describe Close Gates Foundation/China Relationship Federal Court Rules Judicial Watch Lawsuit Can Proceed to Force Cleanup of Colorado Voter Rolls Secret Service Records Show Biden Dog Repeatedly Bit Secret Service Personnel ~snip~ Federal Court Rules Judicial Watch Lawsuit Can Proceed to Force Cleanup of Colorado Voter Rolls Another step forward in our historic efforts for cleaner elections. A federal court ruled that our lawsuit can proceed against Colorado officials to force a cleanup of the state’s voter rolls. We filed the lawsuit on October 5, 2020, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado...

AColorado web designer is appealing a ruling made Monday by the 10th Circuit Court that rejected her challenge of Colorado's anti-discrimination law and requires her to create wedding websites for same-sex couples despite it violating her religious beliefs. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled 2 – 1 the state can force Lorie Smith of studio 303 Creative to design and publish websites promoting messages that go against her personal religious beliefs. The law at issue also prevents Smith from explaining on her company's website what sites she can create that are consistent with her beliefs. By...

This a major win for places of worship, the First Amendment, and the people. This is a big blow to the discriminatory orders issued by Governor Jared Polis. The state of Colorado may not ignore or suspend the First Amendment.DENVER, CO – A federal district judge issued a 44-page decision granting an injunction in favor of two churches against Governor Jared Polis’ discriminatory COVID orders that place numerical restrictions on houses of worship and require masks. The order in Denver Bible Church v. Azar prevents the state of Colorado from enforcing the indoor occupancy limitations and the face-covering requirement on...

The decision came following a lawsuit against federal and state officials for an array of religious freedom violations.. Two Colorado churches and their pastors are currently protected from the state’s enforcement of capacity limits and face masks during worship services thanks to an order handed down by a federal judge on October 15, 2020. This decision came following a lawsuit against federal and state officials for an array of religious freedom violations. Thomas More Society Special Counsel Rebecca Messall and co-counsel Brad Bergford, who are representing the congregations and their pastors, were pleased with the order. Messall reports a favorable...