Free Republic

A federal judge ruled Los Angeles police cannot force journalists out of protest areas or use nonlethal weapons against them after reporters alleged officers targeted them during anti-ICE demonstrations last month. U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera granted the Los Angeles Press Club's request for a 14-day restraining order against the city's police department after the group said it documented dozens of incidents in which officers forced reporters away from public spaces where protests were taking place, hit them with rubber bullets and nonlethal weapons and exposed them to tear gas. Vera's ruling is an emergency order giving the court...

A federal judge has written a tentative decision that sides with the anti-American ACLU’s plaintiffs and will block Trump’s Department of Homeland Security agents from raiding Home Depots, car washes and other places in the Los Angeles area (7 counties in the Central District of California) unless they have reasonable suspicion that there is a violation of immigration laws. According to Fox News, US District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a Biden appointee, has written a tentative decision and it is still subject to change. The judge wrote her tentative ruling as leftists attack ICE agents during an immigration raid at...

SummaryJudge finds legal dispute remains active Salvadorian national faces US criminal charges GREENBELT, Maryland, July 7 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge ruled on Monday that Kilmar Abrego's legal challenge to his wrongful deportation to El Salvador can continue despite the decision by President Donald Trump's administration to bring him back to the United States to face criminal charges.Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis found that there were ongoing issues to resolve in the case, including whether the administration fully complied with prior orders to facilitate Abrego's return and allow his immigration case to be handled as though he had not...

🚨 BREAKING: An Obama judge just BLOCKED the Big Beautiful Bill provision which bars taxpayer funding for Planned ParenthoodWTF?So now activist judges are cosplaying as President, House, AND Senate??!STOP TOLERATING THIS! START IMPEACHING! pic.twitter.com/aX2dzRGjy9— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 7, 2025

A federal judge in New York has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to strip immigration protections from Haitians fleeing instability in their country. The ruling Friday from U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan preserves, for now, the Biden administration’s 2024 extension of the protections, known as “temporary protected status,” for up to 500,000 Haitians living in the United States. Cogan’s 23-page decision is the latest legal development in the administration’s efforts to roll back TPS designations and other immigration programs that allow immigrants from countries facing humanitarian crises to live and work here legally. In a separate case, the Supreme Court...

A U.S. District Court judge granted a preliminary injunction Thursday that halts the Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act of 2024. NetChoice, a trade organization representing apps like Facebook and Instagram, is challenging the law in a case in the U.S. Northern District of Georgia. It would have required submitting proof of age before accessing social media sites. Judge Amy Totenberg said in the 50-page ruling that the law is constitutionally infirm. "The State seeks to erect barriers to speech that cannot withstand the rigorous scrutiny that the Constitution requires, and the inapt tailoring of the law – which...

A federal district court issued a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s attempt to block further disbursement of $5 billion set aside by Congress in 2021 for taxpayer-funded electric vehicle charging stations. The majority of the plaintiffs — 16 states plus the District of Columbia — had still not completed a single charger funded by the program over the past four years. The order excluded National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure charger funding for Minnesota, Vermont and the District of Columbia from the order, finding they had not submitted required documentation. The ruling says that because the funding is allocated according to...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the entire federal district court of Maryland on Tuesday. The lawsuit challenges a standing order issued by the court to automatically block the deportation of any illegal migrant who files a petition for writ of habeas corpus. It names all 15 judges, as well as the court clerk, as defendants. “Defendants’ automatic injunction issues whether or not the alien needs or seeks emergency relief, whether or not the court has jurisdiction over the alien’s claims, and no matter how frivolous the alien’s claims may be,” the lawsuit states. “And it does so in the...

US District Judge Brian Murphy on Monday evening defied the US Supreme Court and said his order barring deportation of illegal aliens to South Sudan remains in effect. In a 6-3 decision, the US Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump Administration to resume deporting illegal aliens to ‘third-party’ countries. The Supreme Court granted the Trump Administration’s emergency application and paused Judge Brian Murphy’s order blocking the third-country removals.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal jury on Monday awarded $500,000 to the widow and estate of a police officer who killed himself nine days after he helped defend the U.S. Capitol from a mob of rioters, including a man who scuffled with the officer during the attack. The eight-member jury ordered that man, 69-year-old chiropractor David Walls-Kaufman, to pay $380,000 in punitive damages and $60,000 in compensatory damages to Erin Smith for assaulting her husband, Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith, inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They awarded an additional $60,000 to compensate Jeffrey Smith's estate for his pain...

BREAKING: A Federal Magistrate judge just DENIED a motion to keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia in custody for human trafficking charges, pending trial.

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. government to free former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from the immigration detention center where he has been held since early March while the Trump administration sought to deport him over his role in pro-Palestinian protests. Ruling from the bench in New Jersey, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said it would be “highly, highly unusual” for the government to continue to detain a legal U.S. resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn’t been accused of any violence. In reaching his decision, he said Khalil is likely...

A federal judge in California has halted the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R-FIMI) Hub, formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC). In a June 13 order, US District Judge Susan Illston declared that the planned elimination of the unit, part of a broader push by the administration to downsize the federal government, violates an earlier injunction. Secretary of State Marco Rubio may have prematurely celebrated the end of R-FIMI back in April when he said the censorship unit was “dead.” Despite his announcement, legal barriers remain in place, preserving...

Obama-appointed Judge Kathleen M. Williams of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida holds Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in contempt of court over enforcing Florida's anti-illegal immigration laws, cooperating with the Trump admin Uthmeier had said that a prior order from the judge did not apply to law enforcement on halting immigration actions because they were not party to the case.

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge blocked New York City’s mayor from letting federal immigration authorities reopen an office at the city’s main jail, in part because of concerns the mayor invited them back in as part of a deal with the Trump administration to end his corruption case.New York Judge Mary Rosado’s decision Friday is a setback for Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, who issued an executive order permitting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies to maintain office space at the Rikers Island jail complex. City lawmakers filed a lawsuit in April accusing Adams of entering into...

SummaryFederal judge in Boston considers issuing injunctionTrump suspended ability of foreign nationals to study at HarvardHarvard accuses Trump of infringing its First Amendment rightsBOSTON, June 16 (Reuters) - A federal judge said on Monday that she would issue a brief extension of an order temporarily blocking President Donald Trump's plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the U.S. to study at Harvard University while she decides whether to issue a longer-term injunction.U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, at the end of a hearing in Boston in Harvard's legal challenge to the restrictions, extended to June 23 a temporary restraining order that...

A federal judge in Maryland on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump lacked the authority to fire three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and ordered their reinstatement — teeing up another high-stakes court clash centered on Trump's ability as commander-in-chief to remove or otherwise control the members of independent agencies. U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox, a Biden appointee, sided with the three ousted members of the board — Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr. — in ruling that their firings were unlawful and ordered all three members to be reinstated to their posts. In...

A federal judge late Thursday ruled that the federalization of parts of California’s National Guard by President Donald Trump was “illegal,” and ordered Trump to return control of the Guard to state Gov. Gavin Newsom “forthwith.” But Judge Charles Breyer stayed his temporary restraining order from taking effect until 3 p.m. ET on Friday to allow the Trump administration to appeal his decision. The administration promptly did just that, asking the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to block Breyer’s ruling from taking effect. Trump, over the past week, had federalized 4,000 members of the California National Guard, and mobilized...

A federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump acted illegally when he seized control of California’s National Guard during ICE-related riots in Los Angeles. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer issued the decision Thursday, siding with Governor Gavin Newsom and ordering Trump to return control of the Guard to the state "forthwith." "His actions were illegal—both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution," Breyer wrote. "He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith." "Federalism is not optional," the...

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...