Free Republic

Congresswoman LaMonica McIver must face at least two of three federal charges accusing her of assaulting and impeding immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center after federal judge on Thursday rejected her attempt to dismiss the case. The New Jersey Democrat was charged with three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials following her May 9 visit to Delaney Hall, a privately owned, 1,000-bed facility in Newark that ICE uses as a detention center. The government alleges McIver intervened as federal agents attempted to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper turned down...

To typo is human. To falsely attribute quotes in a legal opinion is what’s alleged of U.S. District Court Judge Julien Neals. Neals delivered an opinion June 30, 2025, which caught the eye of attorney Andrew Lichtman. Lichtman had appeared before Neals on behalf of defendants in a recent civil suit. Lichtman issued a letter to the judge “bring[ing] to the Court’s attention a series of errors in the Opinion — including three instances in which the outcomes of cases cited in the Opinion were misstated (i.e., the motions to dismiss were granted, not denied) and numerous instances in which...

The $1 bond was paid. But for someone so eager to torch the American house, Khalil is oddly determined to keep a room in it. On Friday, the only door that opened was the one back to his cell. Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia’s most litigious Gaza sympathizer, had seemingly triumphed in federal court—only to find himself right back where he started. Down in Louisiana, where the alligators grow so mean. After days of breathless media coverage and a headline-generating injunction questioning the legality of Mahmoud Khalil’s detention, Judge Michael Farbiarz quietly reversed course. In a terse, two-page order, he declined to...

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that the Trump administration cannot deport Mahmoud Khalil, the radical, pro-Hamas activist who was a graduate student at Columbia University. Random activist judges have overstepped their authority to rule against the Trump administration so many times in the last few months that it’s nearly impossible to keep up with all the rulings. Who appointed these judges to run the country? No one, and the American people are already sick and tired of this. FOX News reports: Federal judge sides with anti-Israel ringleader Mahmoud Khalil, halts Trump administration’s deportation bid A federal judge sided...

A federal judge on Wednesday barred the Trump administration from continuing to detain Mahmoud Khalil under a rarely cited law invoked by the secretary of state — and suggested that Mr. Khalil could be released as early as Friday. However, the judge, Michael E. Farbiarz, paused his own order to give the administration a chance to appeal, saying it would not go into effect until 9:30 a.m. on Friday. And he left a pathway for the government to continue to detain Mr. Khalil for other reasons, though he suggested he would be skeptical were authorities to do so. ***Though Judge...

A magistrate judge warned US Attorney Alina Habba and ICE against ‘out-of-court’ statements about the case against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka during a hearing on Friday. Public statements made by Alina Habba and ICE spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin following Ras Baraka’s arrest are at issue. The Mayor of Newark was arrested for criminal trespass on Friday after storming the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility. ..... Snip..... On Friday, Alina Habba said Mayor Baraka was taken into custody after he ignored multiple warnings from DHS agents. “The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations...

Detained Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil will stay locked up in a Louisiana ICE facility for now — as a New Jersey judge refused to consider freeing him on bail during a hearing Friday. Newark federal court Judge Michael Farbiarz declined to hear arguments on whether to free the 30-year-old green card holder — who has become the face of President Trump’s crackdown on students protesting the Israel-Hamas war — during the hour-long hearing, which was attended by his pregnant wife. Instead, the judge said he’d rule first on the feds’ bid to move Khalil’s legal case challenging his deportation...

U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan's 69-page opinion says he was compelled to rule as he did because of the Supreme Court's rulings in firearms cases, particularly the 2022 Bruen decision that expanded gun rights. Sheridan's ruling left both 2nd Amendment advocates and the state attorney general planning appeals. The judge temporarily delayed the order for 30 days. Pointing to the high court's precedents, Sheridan suggested Congress and the president could do more to curb gun-related violence nationwide. “It is hard to accept the Supreme Court’s pronouncements that certain firearms policy choices are ‘off the table’ when frequently, radical individuals possess...

If the Democratic attorney general of The Garden State wants to shut down your business or scare away your donors, the federal courts cannot help you. That's the warning issued by a network of pro-life pregnancy centers fighting an allegedly harassing subpoena from New Jersey AG Matthew Platkin, who seeks a wide range of documents going back 10 years, after a federal court ruled Jan. 12 it didn't have jurisdiction to hear their constitutional challenge. First Choice Women's Resource Centers filed an emergency motion for an injunction pending appeal Tuesday to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, accusing U.S....

In response to the Bruen decision, a few states have decided to defy the Supreme Court. The first was New York, which took the extraordinary step to declare an emergency, call the legislature into an emergency session, and pass a complicated, extensive statute which criminalized the carry of firearms in such a manner as to render carry outside the home impractical. In spite of several lawsuits contesting the New York law, other states have followed New York’s example. One of those states is New Jersey. Bill A4769 (ACS) was passed into law on December 22, 2022.The lawsuit, KOONS v. REYNOLDS,...

A federal judge in New Jersey on Tuesday iced a new law celebrated by liberals that would allow the state to shut down, and likely bankrupt, the firearms industry if a single gun were misused in a crime. U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi, a Biden appointee, said that he agreed with the gun industry that the New Jersey law was likely unconstitutional and granted the National Shooting Sports Foundation a preliminary injunction. The judge, in a 20-page opinion, said that the New Jersey law signed last summer by Gov. Phil Murphy ignored a larger federal law that protects the...

Afederal judge ruled Monday that part of New Jersey’s concealed carry gun law, which dictates where a concealed firearm can be carried, is unconstitutional. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb placed a temporary restraining order on the law’s “sensitive places” restrictions, saying they violate the Second Amendment rights of New Jersey residents, according to the ruling. Bumb based her ruling on the belief that the state did not have the “historical tradition” of regulating where a concealed carry permit can be used. “Plaintiffs have shown that Defendants will not be able to demonstrate a history of firearm regulation to support any...

BELLEVUE, WA – -(AmmoLand.com)- A federal judge in New Jersey has granted a temporary restraining order in a case brought by the Second Amendment Foundation and several co-plaintiffs in a challenge of that state’s new gun control law which criminalizes carry in a vastly expanded set of “sensitive areas.” U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb in Camden noted, “Plaintiffs have demonstrated a probability of success on the merits of their Second Amendment challenge to the relevant provisions” of the new law. SAF is joined by the Firearms Policy Coalition, the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners, the New Jersey Second...

Sen. Rand Paul refused to speak Thursday with a federal judge whose son was shot by a man who ambushed their New Jersey home almost two years. US District Judge Esther Salas, whose 20-year-old son, Daniel, was killed in the attack, carried out by a disgruntled attorney who had appeared before her in court, tried to stop the Kentucky Republican outside a hearing. She wanted to persuade him to stop blocking legislation that would prohibit the publication of the private information of federal judges, such as home addresses, vehicle information and other data that could put them at risk of...

One of the things that’s bewildered me for almost 20 years is why poll workers are so often Democrats. I assumed it was because Republicans were too passive and disinterested to get involved at the ground level. This matters because, as both Stalin and Biden said, what ultimately matters is who counts the votes—and the next closest thing to counting the votes is being a poll worker. I just learned that I owe Republicans an apology. It turns out that, in 1982, the RNC entered into a consent decree that prohibited it from aggressively enlisting poll workers, and that consent...

Sean Caddle (left), Michael Galdieri (the victim) Photo Credit: YouTube (Caddle) / Riotto Funeral Home (Galdieri) A New Jersey-based political consultant admitted Tuesday that he hired two hitmen to kill a longtime associate from Hudson County who had worked for him on various election campaigns, federal authorities said.Sean Caddle, 44, a former aide to former State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) paid the killers -- one from Connecticut, the other from Pennsylvania -- to get rid of Michael Galdieri, the son of former State Sen. James Galdieri (D-Jersey City) and a prominent figure in local Hudson County politics. Galdieri, 52, was...

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....

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Tuesday removed a hurdle to the construction of a natural-gas pipeline through Pennsylvania and New Jersey, ruling the pipeline developer could invoke the power of the federal government to take state property needed for the project. The court, in a 5-4 opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, rejected New Jersey’s challenge to the actions of the PennEast Pipeline Co., a joint venture of several energy companies that aims to build a 116-mile interstate pipeline. Joining the chief justice were two fellow conservatives, Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh, and two liberals, Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia...

The U.S. Senate has approved the historic nomination of Pakistani-American Zahid Quraishi to the District Court in New Jersey, making him the first Muslim federal judge in the country’s history. The Senate voted 81-16 on Thursday to confirm Mr. Quraishi, 46. As many as 34 Republicans joined the Democrats in confirming the first-ever Muslim-American as a federal judge. Currently, a magistrate judge for the District of New Jersey, Mr. Quraishi would now make history when he will be sworn in as the Judge of the U.S. District Court of New Jersey.

Quraishi was appointed in 2019 to be a magistrate judge in the District of New Jersey by the judges he now seeks to join on the bench. A magistrate judge is not technically considered a member of the federal bench the same way a district court or circuit judge is because the position is not outlined in the Constitution's Article III and magistrate judges are not appointed by the president. Magistrate judges are assigned by statute to oversee some matters and may also be delegated tasks by bona fide district judges. Quraishi, who is of Pakistani descent, got his law...