Free Republic

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...

Please note 2 of the links in the body of this text no longer work. There should still be enough information for you to do additional research to verify or contradict. Following is the original text from my blog post of December, 2, 2012: In the Presidential election of 2012, I experienced the longest lines at early voting that I have ever seen. I read articles from different parts of the country reporting the same phenomenon. On election day there were excessive lines with many polling places required to stay open hours longer than normal to accommodate all of the...

President Trump’s reelection campaign asked a federal judge Wednesday to prevent New Jersey election officials from counting mail-in ballots beginning 10 days ahead of Election Day until a lawsuit is settled. “The public interest obviously weighs in favor of enjoining the government from violating federal law,” lawyers representing the president’s campaign said in the Wednesday brief, according to the New Jersey Globe. “Confidence in the integrity of our electoral processes is essential to the functioning of our participatory democracy. Voter fraud drives honest citizens out of the democratic process and breeds distrust of our government. Voters who fear their legitimate...

The men’s rights lawyer who killed the son of a New Jersey federal judge also likely fatally shot a fellow attorney in California about a week prior, the FBI said Wednesday. The FBI’s Newark field office announced Roy Den Hollander’s link to the California slaying of Marc Angelucci in tweet Wednesday afternoon. “As the FBI continues the investigation into the attack at the home of US District Court Judge Esther Salas, we are now engaged with the San Bernardino CA Sheriff’s Office and have evidence linking the murder of Marc Angelucci to FBI Newark subject Roy Den Hollander,” the office...

The person suspected of shooting the husband and son of US District Court of New Jersey Esther Salas on Sunday at her North Brunswick home has died of what is believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to two law enforcement sources. Daniel Anderl, a 20-year-old student at Catholic University, was killed in the shooting, and Mark Anderl, the judge's husband and a defense attorney, was injured, according to Chief Judge Freda Wolfson. Salas was unharmed, Wolfson said. Mark Anderl is in stable condition and "seems to be OK," said Carlos Salas, the judge's brother. Both the US Marshals...

On Sunday, a gunman shot and killed the son of a federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, at the family’s home, and shot and injured her husband in the same attack. The judge, Esther Salas, 51, was at home at the time of the shooting but was not injured, and her husband, Mark Anderl, a 63-year-old attorney and former Essex County assistant prosecutor, is reportedly in stable condition. Officials believe the gunman who opened fire Sunday, killing Salas’ 20-year-old son and injuring her husband, had been dressed as a FedEx employee, The Associated Press reported. Unidentified law enforcement officials told...