Free Republic

A federal judge appears poised to block the Trump administration if the Department of Defense attempts to place limitations on or ban transgender service members. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes is still hearing arguments Tuesday in the case but signaled deep skepticism with the claim that transgender service members lessen the military’s lethality or readiness. “You and I both agree that the greatest fighting force that world history has ever seen is not going to be impacted in any way by less than 1% of the soldiers using a different pronoun than others might want to call them. Would you...

This ruling, concocted without legal precedent or constitutional justification, is nothing short of judicial sabotage. Worse, it was issued ex parte—meaning Trump administration lawyers weren’t given notice, weren’t allowed to argue, and weren’t even in the room. Only Democrat attorneys general were heard, ensuring a predetermined outcome. Engelmayer’s order is legally indefensible. He cites no statutory basis because none exists. He offers no constitutional rationale because the Constitution directly contradicts him. Instead, he fabricates a fiction: that the duly appointed Treasury Secretary is nothing more than a ceremonial figurehead, akin to a powerless monarch, while unelected bureaucrats—who answer to no...

Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee, ordered a pause on the release of the identities of the FBI employees involved in the January 6 cases and Trump investigations after a hearing on Thursday. The plaintiffs sought a temporary restraining order to prevent the Justice Department from identifying the names of the FBI employees. Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued publicly naming the employees would put people in danger.

A federal judge said Wednesday that she may immediately block the Treasury Department from directly sharing the personal financial data of millions of Americans with Elon Musk's DOGE. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who sits in Washington, DC., made the announcement after an hourlong court hearing, during which a government lawyer said only two Musk allies — both of them now Treasury employees — have any access to the data. That contention was met with skepticism from one of the lawyers seeking to ensure the data's privacy. "We remain concerned that the records — the personal information of our association's...

Despite President Trumps Blanket pardon of nearly all patriots persecuted over January 6th by a weaponized Dept. of Justice, some of those prisoners still remain in the D.C. jail. It is believed Judge Carl Nichols is responsible for the hold up. It is an outrage that prisoners held across the country can be released, travel to D.C. in support of those being held in what’s been dubbed “The D.C. Gulag,” and arrive by for the hostages in D.C. have been released. We talk to the J6ers just released and explain what needs to happen to get the others out.

A 36-year-old step-grandmother accused of beating and shaking an 11-month-old baby to death will not even spend a year in jail. Shanica Callaghan was sentenced to 364 days in prison by Judge Ushir Pandit-Durant in Queens Supreme Court on Tuesday after striking a plea deal. Her husband Clinton's grandson Jeremiah died on September 6, 2017, with a fractured skull and injuries to his brain, neck, and spinal cord. A medical examiner found the baby died from 'violent, repetitive forces of acceleration and deceleration and significant blunt force trauma being applied to [his] head and body'. Callaghan, who has three young...

Rudy Giuliani was held in contempt of court Monday and accused of trying to “run out the clock” to avoid paying his $148 million defamation verdict — which may now cost him his $3.5 million Florida condo. Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Liman found the former Big Apple mayor in contempt twice for blowing through deadlines and not turning over key information ahead of a Jan. 16 trial over whether he has to give up the Florida abode and his prized Yankees World Series rings. Giuliani owes the multi-million dollar tab to Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter...

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A New Orleans judge has made the unusual decision to allow a woman accused of murdering a man on Bourbon Street last summer to await trial at home in Mississippi, court records show. Orleans Parish Criminal District Judge Nandi Campbell on Dec. 18 granted permission for accused killer Mia Lindsey to leave Louisiana and stay on “24/7 home incarceration” at her residence in Columbia, Miss., while awaiting trial in New Orleans, records show. The judge stipulated that Lindsey must return to her New Orleans courtroom for a Jan. 22 hearing on motions in her case, and...

A violent teen with an extensive criminal history has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a 14-year-old boy, tying him to a tree, and disembowling him at a park in Everett, WA, a city located just north of Seattle. The suspect was released from custody by a Seattle judge just two weeks prior to the alleged offense despite the prosecutor's objections. Millorz Canales, 17, of Snohomish County, has been charged with first-degree assault, first-degree kidnapping, and robbery. He has been accused of luring the victim to Lions Park on December 17, repeatedly stabbing him, cutting out his organs, and leaving the...

A federal judge ruled on Monday that sections of an Arkansas law, which sought to impose criminal penalties on librarians and booksellers for distributing “harmful” material to children, were unconstitutional. The law, known as the Arkansas Act 372, was signed into law last year by Republican governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. It was challenged by a coalition of organizations in the state, leading to a lengthy legal battle that concluded this week. Two sections of Act 372 subjected librarians and booksellers to jail time for distributing material that is deemed “harmful to children”. Proponents of the law, including Sanders, said the...

How does a man end up in a women's prison in California? Thanks to progressives in the state legislature, all it takes is for the man to declare himself a woman. Three years ago, Democrats enacted Senate Bill 132, also known as "The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act." As one prosecutor explains, the law requires no medical transition, no psychological evaluation, and no other medical assessment. What happens when this law gets put into effect in prisons? Pretty much what everyone would expect. Tremaine Carroll impregnated one fellow inmate after declaring himself a woman and then allegedly raped two...

A Georgia homeowner was arrested and charged with criminal trespass after attempting to move back into her home, which was being occupied by an alleged squatter. 'I spent the night on a mat on a concrete floor in deplorable conditions. While this woman, this squatter slept in my home,' Loletha Hale told WSB-TV Atlanta. On December 9, Clayton County police and Sheriff's deputies were called to the home on Livingston Drive after Hale tried to regain access. A deputy, captured on body camera footage, advised Hale to consider the alleged squatter's perspective. 'Just think of it from this perspective, though....

BALTIMORE (AP) — A federal judge on Friday ruled that the U.S. Naval Academy can continue considering race in its admissions process, ruling that military cohesion and other national security factors mean the officer training school should not be subjected to the same standards as civilian universities. During a two-week bench trial in September, attorneys for the school argued that prioritizing diversity in the military makes it stronger, more effective and more widely respected. The group behind the case, Students for Fair Admissions, also brought the lawsuit challenging affirmative action that resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling last...

A Massachusetts judge has been slapped with fresh charges after she was accused helping a twice-deported illegal immigrant evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2018. Judge Shelley Joseph, now assigned to Boston Municipal Court, is under fire again six years after she allegedly allowed Jose Medina-Perez to walk out a back door of the Newton District Courthouse to avoid getting arrested by the ICE agents on duty. In a scathing 112-page report, the state's Commission on Judicial Conduct accused Joseph of 'willful judicial misconduct' and bringing 'disrepute' to the court system. While these aren't criminal charges, the commission did ask...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The man accused of shooting a FedEx employee in the hub parking lot in October has been released without bond. 18-year-old Tyreese Earnest was charged with attempted second-degree murder, employment of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, and vandalism. Earnest was released on his own recognizance and is scheduled to be back in court on November 26. On October 30, Memphis Airport Police responded to the shooting at the FedEx World Hub located in the 2800 block of Democrat Road. Memphis Police say the victim identified Earnest as...

A father accused of almost strangling his daughter in an attempted 'honor killing' outside her school was freed on just $150,000 bail. Ihsan Ali, 44, and his wife Zahraa Subhi Mohsin Ali, 40, were charged with attempted kidnapping and assault after the attack on October 18. The girl, 17, who wasn't named, ran away from home to Timberline High School in Lacey, Washington, after her parents tried to put her on a plane to Iraq. 'Her father had recently been threatening her with honor killing for refusing an arranged marriage with an older man in another county,' the girl told...

A federal judge in New York on Saturday authorized two Georgia poll workers defamed by Rudy Giuliani to pursue information about four Yankees World Series rings owned by the former New York City mayor. Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss laid claim to the rings as part of their $148 million defamation judgment but when it came time to collect Giuliani asserted that he had given the rings to his son, Andrew, as a gift. The judge's Saturday morning order allows Freeman and Miss to serve a subpoena on Giuliani's accounting firm for his tax returns. An attorney for Freeman and...

A federal judge in Virginia on Friday ordered the commonwealth to place non-citizens back on its voter rolls. The judge ruled that removing the registered voters from the rolls violated federal law, WRIC reported. The Justice Department sued Virginia earlier this month over removing non-citizens from its rolls ahead of the Nov. 5 elections. The suit was against the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Virginia State Board of Elections, and the Virginia Commissioner of Elections for allegedly violating the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The NVRA prevents states from using systematic programs to remove ineligible voters from voter rolls within...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (WRIC) – A federal judge has ordered Virginia to put people back on the state’s voter rolls after they were removed under a state program that the Justice Department and advocates claim illegally took them off too close to the election. Lawsuits from the Justice Department and advocacy groups allege that part of an executive order from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin systematically removes alleged noncitizens from the rolls too soon to the Nov. 5 presidential election in violation of federal law. The law — the National Voter Registration Act — requires Virginia and other states to stop systematically...

JUST IN: Rudy Giuliani must give his Manhattan apartment, jewelry, cars, sports memorabilia, TVs & furniture to Georgia election workers he defamed, judge rules - CNN