Free Republic

When the Trump administration swept into the Department of Justice on Jan. 20, it moved swiftly to purge, demote, transfer and otherwise sideline career lawyers not perceived to be team players or sufficiently committed to the MAGA legal agenda. [snip] Inside, nearly a dozen of the government's most seasoned civil rights, environmental and national security lawyers have been reconstituted as members of a newly created group called the Sanctuary Cities task force. At first glance, the job seemed promising — a legal strike team that would sue municipalities the administration claimed were facilitating the violation of immigration laws, a task...

An ex-CIA analyst was sentenced to more than three years in prison Wednesday for leaking top secret documents about Israel’s plans to retaliate against Iran last year. Asif William Rahman, 34, had pleaded guilty in January to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information after he was arrested for absconding with records from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency last October that indicated Israel was planning to launch airstrikes in response to a massive Iranian missile attack. Rahman, who had been a CIA employee since 2016 and had access to top secret documents, leaked the stolen information on social...

Radical leftist agitators are planning a series of coordinated demonstrations across New Mexico on June 14, targeting President Donald Trump with what they’re branding as “No Kings” protests. But what organizers portray as “peaceful protests” have all the hallmarks of the kind of far-left mob activity that has already sparked violent insurrections in places like Los Angeles, where criminal aliens and anarchists recently clashed with federal law enforcement officers. The so-called “50501 Movement”—standing for 50 protests, 50 states, one movement—has aligned with fringe progressive groups to launch what they claim is a “nationwide day of defiance” against Trump’s leadership, coinciding...

It was supposed to be a routine appearance, a visit from the commander in chief to rally the troops, boost morale and celebrate the Army's 250th-birthday week, which culminates with a Washington, D.C., parade slated for Saturday. Instead, what unfolded Tuesday at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, bore little resemblance to the customary visit from a president and defense secretary. There, President Donald Trump unleashed a speech laced with partisan invective, goading jeers from a crowd of soldiers positioned behind his podium -- blurring the long-standing and sacrosanct line between the military and partisan politics. As Trump viciously attacked his perceived...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump made no secret of his willingness to exert a maximalist approach to enforcing immigration laws and keeping order as he campaigned to return to the White House. The fulfillment of that pledge is now on full display in Los Angeles. The president has put hundreds of National Guard troops on the streets to quell protests over his administration’s immigration raids, a deployment that state and city officials say has only inflamed tensions. Trump called up the California National Guard over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — the first time in 60 years a...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing anti-diversity and anti-transgender executive orders in grant funding requirements that LGBTQ+ organizations say are unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar said Monday that the federal government cannot force recipients to halt programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion or acknowledge the existence of transgender people in order to receive grant funding. The order will remain in effect while the legal case continues, although government lawyers will likely appeal. The funding provisions “reflect an effort to censor constitutionally protected speech and services promoting DEI and...

President Trump has long mused about using troops to crush violent protests or riots in blue-state cities. He is now moving to do so in Los Angeles.Setting up a rare use of military force on domestic soil, President Trump ordered the Pentagon on Saturday night to send at least 2,000 National Guard troops to respond to protests in Los Angeles set off by his immigration crackdown.Mr. Trump has long mused about using military force on domestic soil to crush violent protests or riots, fight crime and hunt for undocumented migrants — a move that his aides talked him out of...

Legal experts questioned the president’s response to unrest in Los Angeles, saying the military personnel involved will face strict limitations under the law.President Donald Trump’s order to deploy 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles is unprecedented, relying on an unorthodox use of a law aimed at quelling serious domestic unrest or an attack on the United States by a foreign power, some legal experts said Sunday.Trump invoked a section of the Armed Forces Act that allows the president to bypass a governor’s authority over the National Guard and call those troops into federal service when he considers it...

Federalizing the National Guard in response to ICE protests risks bloodshed—which is exactly what this administration wants.

Donald Trump has frequently poured scorn on those who served in the US military. Even though he avoided serving after obtaining a note from a friendly doctor who said he had bone spurs, he famously mocked late Republican John McCain, the 2008 presidential candidate and a prisoner-of-war, saying he preferred people who did not get captured. He would later stun his chief of staff, former Marine General John Kelly, during a visit to France for the centennial anniversary of the end of the First World War, when he allegedly claimed those who gave their lives were “suckers” and “losers”. Now,...

Former DC Metropolitan Police Department Lieutenant Shane Lamond has been sentenced to 18 months in prison by crooked activist Judge Amy Berman Jackson for speaking to Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio in an attempt to prevent clashes between his group and Antifa militants. Lamond was arrested for telling Tarrio that the DC Police had a warrant out for his arrest for vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner. Before his arrest, Lamond had been with the department for 22 years and served as supervisor of the Intelligence Branch for his last four years. Judge Berman-Jackson convicted Lamond in December 2024 for...

A federal judge in Manhattan issued an order on June 3 preserving a previous preliminary injunction that had blocked the Department of Education from canceling extensions to states for accessing COVID-19-related funds for school districts. School officials can be grifters too. The $1.1 billion in unused COVID-19 relief funds earmarked for elementary and high schools across 16 states and Washington, D.C. must be given to them. The aid was originally granted under the American Rescue Plan Act to support pandemic recovery efforts such as tutoring, building upgrades, and assistance for homeless students. Far-left U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos’ ruling blocks...

BOSTON – A federal judge in Boston on Thursday temporarily blocked US President Donald Trump from barring US entry of foreign nationals seeking to study or participate in exchange programs at Harvard University. Under a two-page temporary restraining order granted to Harvard, US District Judge Allison Burroughs enjoined Trump’s proclamation from taking effect pending further litigation of the matter amid an escalating dispute between the Ivy League school and Republican president. The judge ruled that Trump’s directive prohibiting foreign nationals from entering the United States to study at Harvard for the next six months would cause “immediate and irreparable injury”...

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Trump from deporting the family of the Egyptian terrorist who firebombed Jews in Boulder, Colorado. US District Judge, Gordon Gallagher, a Biden appointee temporarily blocked the deportation of Mohamed Sabry Soliman’s wife and five children.

A bipartisan group of more than 130 retired judges filed a brief Friday urging a federal court to drop charges against Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan, saying her arrest undermines "centuries of precedent on judicial immunity." Dugan, a Milwaukee County circuit court judge, was arrested April 25 by FBI agents on federal allegations she prevented the arrest of a man by immigration authorities during a federal law enforcement operation at her courthouse. The man, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, was arrested and detained at an immigration detention center. In an amicus brief filed Friday, the group of judges argue that Dugan shouldn't be prosecuted...

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected the DOJ’s bid to lift a Clinton judge’s order blocking Trump’s reorganization plans for 20 federal agencies. Last Friday US District Judge Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee, turned a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) into a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump Administration’s effort to overhaul and reorganize 20 agencies in the Executive Branch. In February, President Trump implemented an executive order to completely overhaul the Executive Branch through the work of DOGE. The California-based judge said in order for President Trump to make such large-scale overhauls, he needs approval from Congress. .......

Here's your daily update from the Pacific Northwest 👇 Caleb "Haven" Wilvich is a man who likes to wear dresses. Imagine this guy strutting naked around women with the blessing of America's courts: Two years later, a U.S. federal court of appeals has upheld the lower court's ruling that the spa must allow this man to be naked around naked women on their premises. In his dissent, Trump-appointed Judge Kenneth Lee said this: Now, under edict from the state, women — and even girls as young as 13 years old — must be nude alongside patrons with exposed male genitalia...

The judges on the U.S. Court of International Trade who ruled that President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are illegal have a history of Democrat Party activism.Each of the members of the three-judge panel issuing the Wednesday ruling – which was stayed Thursday by an appeals court, allowing the tariffs to continue – fit the profile of other activists judges who continued their political activism after joining the court.Judges Gary Katzmann, Timothy Reif, and Jane Restani have histories of supporting Democrat candidates that span as far back as 45 years ago and have thwarted Trump’s authority in both of his...

Has any American company run away from a public commitment faster than Target?In an Aug. 19, 2020, conference call, Target Chief Executive Brian Cornell forthrightly put his company in the forefront of the quest for racial and ethnic justice. George Floyd had been murdered by Police Officer Derek Chauvin, abetted by several other officers in Minneapolis, Target’s home city, only about three months earlier. Calls for recognition of the racism exposed by the killing were still reverberating nationwide.“Our team is passionately demanding equity and justice for our Black colleagues and guests,” Cornell said. “We are united in that passion and...

A growing number of Americans are looking at dual citizenship as a fallback plan in times of widespread uncertainty and deepening political divisions, with young people leading the change.A recent survey conducted by Harris Poll found that four in ten U.S. adults (42 percent) have considered or plan to relocate outside the country to improve their quality of life or financial position. Among Gen Zers, this number went up to 63 percent, while 52 percent of millennials were considering moving abroad."For most of modern history, the American Dream was rooted in one place: America. But that's shifting," Tim Osieki, director...