Free Republic

A federal judge ruled this week that the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) may not force Catholic employers to accommodate abortion and IVF or to abide by Biden-era LGBT “anti-discrimination” rules. The Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota, and the Catholic Benefits Association (CBA) had sued over the regulations last year, arguing their enforcement under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act violated the religious freedom rights of Catholic groups.“The US District Court for the District of North Dakota entered judgment Wednesday,” according to Bloomberg Law, “a day after Judge Daniel M. Traynor ruled that EEOC’s regulations under the Pregnant Workers Fairness...

Two federal judges on Wednesday blocked the removal of Venezuelan nationals and alleged TdA gang members facing deportation under the Alien Enemies Act after the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case. US District Judge for the Southern District of Texas, Fernando Rodriguez, Jr., a Trump appointee, issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) through April 23 or until he issues an order. “Respondents are enjoined from transferring, relocating, or removing J.A.V., J.G.G., W.G.H., or any other person that Respondents claim are subject to removal under the Proclamation, from the El Valle Detention Center; and Respondents are enjoined from...

A federal judge on Thursday delivered a major blow to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), denying their attempt to force the Trump administration into continuing taxpayer funding for their massive refugee resettlement operations. Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, rejected the bishops’ request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) that would have forced the administration to immediately restore funding. The lawsuit, filed by the non-profit organization USCCB in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenged the Trump administration’s decision to cut off federal grants that fuel the mass resettlement of migrants across America—programs that have...

A federal judge has blocked a Maine law requiring a three-day waiting period to buy a firearm in response to a legal challenge filed by gun dealers who argue the restrictions are unconstitutional. The ruling Thursday by U.S. District Judge Lance Walker sided with the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, Gun Owners of Maine and several gun sellers who filed a lawsuit last year alleging the law requiring people to wait 72 hours to acquire a firearm — even if they pass a required criminal background check. Walker's ruling temporarily blocks the law while he considers the legal challenge. "Citizens wishing...

Danielle R. Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced her resignation in a statement that does not refer to the DOJ directive. Danielle R. Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who was ordered to drop the corruption charges against New York City mayor Eric Adams, has resigned, a senior official said Thursday. The move appears to be a rebuke to the Justice Department. It comes three days after Emil Bove, the acting U.S. deputy attorney general, issued a memo ordering federal prosecutors in New York to drop the...

A federal judge rejected Cooper Union's request to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Jewish students that alleged the New York college violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to protect them from anti-Semitic attacks.Judge John Cronan also admonished Cooper Union for arguing that the Jewish students should have hidden when anti-Semitic agitators cornered them in the school library...In October 2023, anti-Israel protesters... banged on the locked doors and the large floor-to-ceiling windows, demanding to be let in.In response, 10 Jewish students filed suit against Cooper Union in April 2024, alleging that the college failed to protect them...

From U.S. v. Saleem, decided [yesterday] by Judges J. Harvie Wilkinson, Steven Agee, and Allison Rushing: The Supreme Court in Heller defined "arms" as "any thing that a man wears for his defence, or takes into his hands, or useth in wrath to cast at or strike another." Therefore, "the Second Amendment extends … to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding." While a silencer may be a firearm accessory, it is not a "bearable arm" that is capable of casting a bullet. Moreover, while silencers may serve...

A federal judge has halted President Joe Biden’s plans to open the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, to illegal aliens enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. In May, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced a final rule to open Obamacare rolls to some DACA illegal aliens enrolled in the program. Former President Barack Obama first created the DACA program via executive order, shielding more than a million illegal aliens from deportation through the years. On Monday, District Judge Daniel Traynor granted a preliminary injunction and stay to ensure that Biden’s agencies cannot implement such...

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a high-profile case brought by the Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency (PHMPT). The decision mandates the FDA to release the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) file for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine no later than June 30, 2025. The case stemmed from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the PHMPT, which sought comprehensive data related to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA initially claimed it would need up to 75 years to process and release the requested documents....

On September 27, 2024, Federal District Court Judge Michael T. Liburdi rendered a decision in American Encore v. Adrian Fontes that weaponized algorithms surreptitiously embedded in various state boards of elections official voter registration database, turning them into a tool to block elections that bear the modus operandi of mail-in ballot election fraud from being certified.In his decision, Judge Liburdi referenced a provision in the Elections Procedures Manual (EPM) that Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, had issued. That provision required the Secretary of State to certify an election by excluding the votes of any county that refused...

...Judge Trevor McFadden sided with two ranchers from Arizona—a border state that's a battleground in the presidential race—who claimed that the Biden administration's halt on the border wall, which violated laws requiring an environmental review, caused concrete damage to the environment. The case centers around whether the Biden administration violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not reviewing the potential environmental impact of halting construction.. The ruling came from the case Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security... "In sum, the Court finds that Smith suffered tangible harms that were caused by an influx...

A federal judge in Kentucky has partially blocked a U.S. Transportation Department program that metes out contracts to minority-owned businesses and suggested he may eventually rule against it, marking the latest blow to a government affirmative action program. In a 28-page opinion issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove wrote that, for now, the scope of the injunction is limited to the two plaintiffs — both transportation contractors — and at least two states, Kentucky and Indiana... "...the Court is sure that the federal government has nothing but good intentions in trying to remedy past wrongs,” wrote Van...

On August 30, 2024, Judge Iain D. Johnston of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued an order and opinion showing the ban on carrying concealed weapons on public transportation is unconstitutional. The ban is “as applied”. It is only applicable to the individuals before the court in this case. The Chicago Transit Authority is commonly referred to as the CTA. From the opinion and order: After an exhaustive review of the parties’ filings and the historical record,as required by Supreme Court precedent, the Court finds that Defendants failed to meet their burden to show...

A U.S. District Judge ruled Friday that Illinois’ ban prohibiting concealed carry for self-defense on public transportation violates the Second Amendment. The judge, Ian D. Johnston, issued his opinion in Schoenthal v. Raoul. The plaintiffs in the case, Benjamin Schoenthal, Mark Wroblewski, Joseph Vesel, and Douglas Winston, all claimed the ban violated the Second Amendment. Schoenthal, Wrogblewski, Vesel, and Winston’s case was supported by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Firearms Policy Coalition. Judge Johnston noted: In Illinois, openly carrying firearms is unlawful. Under the Firearm Concealed Carry Act, an individual with a concealed-carry license may generally carry a concealed...

The court found that regulating home alcohol stills is not one of the enumerated powers given to the government. At https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.384014/gov.uscourts.txnd.384014.49.0.pdf UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS FORT WORTH DIVISION

Afederal judge on Friday dismissed a challenge from 21 states against a Biden administration program that allows 30,000 asylum-seekers into the U.S. from four countries each month. U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton ruled that Texas and 20 other Republican-led states didn’t have legal standing in the lawsuit because they didn’t demonstrate suffered financial harm from the federal program, the Associated Press reported. The program lets a total of up to 30,000 asylum-seekers enter the U.S. each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. “In reaching this conclusion, the Court does not address the lawfulness of the Program,” Tipton wrote...

Biden, via proclamation, paused obligation of these funds the day he was inaugurated….” Court rules this was illegal, but I think Biden will find a way not to actually build the wall.. The timing of this is worth noting. Last night, in his vitriolic State of the Union address, Joe Biden blamed everyone but himself — but particularly Republicans — for his border crisis. But everyone knows, on day one of his presidency Biden by executive order removed numerous border protetions, including construction of a border wall. ... Sen. Marsha Blackburn... on his first day in office, Biden: — Paused...

Author’s Note: In light of the Supreme Court’s disastrous and unconstitutional decision to support the Biden regime’s border invasion in the Texas “razor wire” case, it seemed to be the right time to revisit this article from 2021 which explained to conservative voters how our “hand-picked” conservative judges betrayed us during the post-Trump years. It seems a hundred years have passed since President Trump picked Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett to serve on the Supreme Court and started what was supposed to be the Great Conservative Years of the Trump Era. Long after the Donald left...

Yesterday, American attorney Aaron Siri announced that a judge had ordered the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) to release additional text-based information collected by the V-safe online application. The information pertains to 7.8 million records submitted by more than 10 million V-safe users, typically detailing injuries after being injected with a covid “vaccine.”V-safe is a smartphone-based tool that uses text messaging and web surveys to provide personalised health check-ins after receiving a covid injection. The after-vaccination health checker app was developed and implemented to monitor covid-19 “vaccine” safety and as an active surveillance supplement to existing CDC...

(RNS) — A federal judge in Illinois ruled that a state school district is not responsible for the actions of a teacher who allegedly proselytized students in a public school classroom, leading a Muslim student to convert to Christianity. Judge Iain D. Johnston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, ruled that officials of Community Unit School District 300 were not responsible for the teacher’s actions, as he was disciplined and later resigned after being confronted by those public school officials. The ruling is the latest twist in a long-running legal dispute over religion...