Free Republic

Just hours before a law banning foreign nationals from contributing to ballot issue campaigns was set to take effect, a federal judge blocked part of it because it violates their First Amendment rights. Judge Michael Watson has ruled that the state can’t enforce the law against foreign nationals – including lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders – who donate to ballot issue campaigns. Read the ruling here. Watson wrote that the political spending of lawful permanent residents "does not carry a risk of undue foreign influence", and noted that LPRs can serve in the military. "It would...

A Kentucky man who was the first known person to breach the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to more than four years in prison. Michael Sparks, 47, was convicted in March by a federal jury in the District of Columbia on all six charges that he faced, including two felony offenses of obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder. On Aug. 27, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly sentenced Sparks to 53 months in prison and fined him $2,000.

A plasterer who admitted to stirring up racial hatred on Facebook has been sentenced to 21 months in prison. Daniel Kingsley, 33, from Shotton in Flintshire, posted racist messages on social media on 8 and 10 August, as part of the disorder in England and Northern Ireland. Kingsley is a "bigot" who holds "deeply offensive and racist views", judge Rhys Rowlands said during sentencing at Mold Crown Court. He added that he hoped this case would "stand as an example to any others thinking of inciting hatred". Prosecutor David Mainstone shared two posts with the court that Kingsley made on...

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte blasted a unanimous decision rendered Wednesday by the Montana Supreme Court that struck down the Parental Consent for Abortion Act of 2013, eroding parental rights for the medical care of their minor children. “As a strong defender of parental rights, I’m deeply concerned and disappointed by today’s ruling from the Montana Supreme Court, which states parents do not have a fundamental right to oversee the medical care of their young daughters,” Gianforte said. “In its ruling, the Court has wielded its gavel like a hammer against one of the fundamental rights in our history: the right...

Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 @julie_kelly2 As expected, Judge Chutkan wastes no time in restarting the proceedings in Jack Smith’s J6 case against Donald Trump. She filed this order this morning. Status hearing set for August 16 with status report due this week. Here we go again…

A California judge has ruled that teachers were right to punish a seven-year-old girl over a Black Lives Matter drawing because 'she's too young to have First Amendment rights.' The first grader was banned from recess and drawing pictures at Viejo Elementary in Orange County after she added the words 'any life' below Black Lives Matter on a picture she drew and and gave to a black friend. The picture showed the words 'Black Lives Matter' with four round shapes in various different tones of brown, beige and yellow, which was intended to 'represent her friends' who were 'racially-mixed'.

As The Gateway Pundit reported in November 2020, the total number of “indefinitely confined” voters, or Express Votes ballots for individuals with disabilities, skyrocketed from around 60,000 in 2016 to over 240,000 in 2020. The number of indefinitely confined voters in Wisconsin soared from 6% of total voters in 2016 to 11% of total voters in 2020. No photo ID is required in Wisconsin for indefinitely confined voters. A local Madison news outlet reported on the ‘indefinitely confined’ ballots from the 2020 election: These voters are not required to show proof of a photo ID to vote absentee if they...

S.A. McCarthy @pipesmoknpapist S.A. McCarthy is a news writer at The Washington Stand. A Montana judge is striking down a state law defining “sex” as either male or female, claiming that the law violates the Montana State Constitution. In an order issued on Tuesday, Montana District Court Judge Shane Vannatta, the first Montana judge to openly identify as homosexual, declared Senate Bill 458 to be facially unconstitutional according to Montana state law. The legislation, passed by the Legislature in 2023 and signed into law by Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, revised state law to declare: In human beings, there are...

Ajudge in New Jersey ruled that about 1,900 mail-in ballots that were prematurely opened have to be counted and accepted in Atlantic County. Superior Court Judge Michael J. Blee ruled Friday that the prematurely opened ballots will be counted in the county's primary race. This decision could determine the outcome of the state’s 2nd Congressional District Democratic primary. [snip] One official testified that there was chaos with too many workers sorting ballots, leading to disorganization.

Former and potentially future President Donald Trump was found "guilty" last Thursday on 34 felony counts in a hush money "trial." It's not just Trump they're going after, though with a weaponized and politicized justice system. As we've been covering, President Joe Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ) has been quite eager to prosecute prayerful pro-life activists using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, including an elderly grandfather. Since then, more grandparents have been sentenced, including grandmothers in poor health. Late last month, 59-year-old Heather Idoni was sentenced to 24 years in prison. She's already been incarcerated for...

Despite national attention and thousands of protesting parents, a federal court is refusing to allow parents to opt their children out of LGBT courses in school. The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decided on Wednesday that Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland does not have to allow parents to opt their children out of LGBT-themed lessons. Judge G. Steven Agee, a George W. Bush appointee, claimed that the parents seeking to opt their children out of the lessons in question did not provide sufficient evidence to justify a preliminary injunction.In March of last year, MCPS added nearly two...

CHANDLER, Arizona — In a packed courtroom on Tuesday, a judge dismissed charges filed against 71 protesters arrested in late April at the Arizona State University Campus. The judge dismissed the cases without prejudice at the University Lakes Justice Court in Chandler, Arizona. The ruling by Democrat Justice of the Peace Tyler Kissell means the protesters are free to go but may face future prosecution if authorities file charges within the next year. According to a court spokesperson, the pro-Hamas protesters all faced trespassing charges. Breitbart Texas attended the hearing and observed supporters gathering outside the courthouse to rally on...

A Washington, D.C., judge who released on bail a teenager accused of firing over two dozen rounds at a car full of people along a busy street has a social media presence filled with progressive activism and a financial link to progressive mega donor George Soros. Lloyd U. Nolan, Jr., a magistrate judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, is in the spotlight this week after he ordered that 18-year-old Amonte Moody be released from custody before his trial despite accusations he sprayed a D.C. neighborhood with shots from an AR-15 while targeting a car carrying four...

A federal judge rejected former President Trump’s latest attempt for a new trial, upholding the verdict and $83.3 million award in his defamation case against writer E. Jean Carroll. In a written opinion, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said Trump’s arguments are “without merit.” “Mr. Trump’s malicious and unceasing attacks on Ms. Carroll were disseminated to more than 100 million people. They included public threats and personal attacks, and they endangered Ms. Carroll’s health and safety,” Kaplan wrote. A jury in January ordered him to pay $83.3 million to Carroll after Kaplan found he was liable for defamation. Last month,...

There's been a case in New York that I should have been following more closely. Dexter Taylor was a hobby gunsmith. He liked the nature of putting together guns from lawfully purchased parts. However, the state of New York disapproved of this pastime. They arrested Taylor and, on Monday, he was convicted. My friend Jeff Charles over at our sister site RedState has been covering this case pretty much from the jump, and in his story from Monday about the sentencing, there was something we had to talk about. You see, the judge in the case has decided that a...

El Paso County Judge Ruben Morales on Monday dismissed riot charges against 140 illegal aliens who participated in a ‘border riot’ on April 12 and released them from state custody. The illegals cut through the concertina wire and rushed over the border illegally on April 12. Judge Morales said he doesn’t believe probable cause exists to keep the illegals in custody for participating in a riot.

New York CNN — For the third time in three days, a New York appellate judge has denied an attempt by former President Donald Trump to delay his hush money trial. Trump on Wednesday asked a New York appeals court for emergency relief to stop the criminal trial scheduled to begin Monday from going ahead so he could appeal a lower court’s ruling on presidential immunity and have the judge recused from the case. It took Associate Justice Ellen Gesmer just minutes after hearing arguments to reject the interim motion to stay the trial.